COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

South Dublin County Council Crest

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, July 14, 2025

QUESTION NO. 17

QUESTION: Councillor H. Farrell

To ask the Chief Executive when the last accessibility audits were carried out for local population centres across the County, and to list the dates and area reports where known?

REPLY:

A comprehensive programme of accessibility audits was carried out across town and neighbourhood centres in 2007 to identify the range of barriers that potentially restrict access for disabled people to the built environment at the time. The audits used a range of best practice sources at the time including the Part M Building Regulations, British Standard 8300:2001 (Design of buildings and their approach to meet the needs of disabled people) and the experiences of disabled people. 

In addition to people who use wheelchairs or who have mobility problems, there are thousands of people affected by some degree of hearing loss, learning disabilities, facial disfigurement, visual impairment, mental illness or conditions such as arthritis or incontinence, and the access assessments considered the needs of all potential building users from a pan-disability perspective. The majority of actions identified were then subsumed into work programmes of the relevant departments.

With the recent appointment of a new Equality Officer the work carried out under this programme is now being reviewed to inform a new equality and access work plan for which €100,000 was provided for in the budget, along with extra funding for physical works for better accessibility on local footpaths (€400,000), additional accessibility & Disabled Persons Grant (DPG) works for housing tenants (€150,000), and €25,000 contribution for the 2026 Special Olympics.

The following are the details of the towns and neighbourhood centres audited and their dates and each audit had a report identifying the issues arising. The Council's Equality Officer, Grainne Meehan, is currently developing a proposal for Accessibility Audits to be carried out in SDCC villages and other relevant facilities. This work will be brought to the Social, community and Equality SPC for discussion on next steps. 

Town Audits

Neighbourhood Centres