A hearing has been held in the front of the Oireachtas Housing Committee outlining the challenges people with a disability face in accessing housing.

The Irish Wheelchair Association (IWA) and The National Disability Authority went before the committee this morning, 04 July, making a series of recommendations to tackle issues for wheelchair users.

These included simple administrative changes of revising the social housing application forms to record a wheelchair accessible housing requirement, and ensuring that the local authorities have the IT system in place to support this.

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Outlining the contribution of the disability rights groups, Sinn Féin housing spokesperson Eoin Ó Broin TD said: "In the meantime, every Local Authority should review its current social housing list and see how many people require wheelchair accessible housing.

"They should also plan for and ensure that that 7% of every social housing development is designed to be wheelchair accessible.

"Part M of the current building regulations should be reviewed, with input from the IWA, to include wheelchair accessible design specifications."

He added: "All of these proposals are workable and Minister Eoghan Murphy must heed the housing demands of disability rights groups."

(CM/JG)