Remediation of Dwellings Damaged by the Use of Defective Concrete Blocks (Amendment) Bill 2025: Committee and Remaining Stages
Seanad Éireann — 2025-12-16
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Frances Black (IND), Industrial and Commercial Panel

As it stands, this section appears to permit side-by-side housing only where there is a visible physical disability and the relevant dwelling was adapted for the accommodation of a person who has a disability, while failing to take account of people with non-visible cognitive, neurological or age-related disabilities, including advanced dementia. This approach raises serious concerns in relation to compliance with disability and equality legislation, most notably the Disability Act 2005. Under that Act, public bodies are obliged to promote equal access to services and supports for persons with disabilities, ensure that people with disabilities are not discriminated against on the basis of the nature or visibility of their disability and provide reasonable accommodation to enable a person with a disability to live with dignity and autonomy. The side-by-side policy appears to be in direct conflict with these principles.
I wish to draw the Minister's attention to a particularly distressing and urgent case which highlights the inadequacy of the current approach.
I spoke at length to a distressed man this week. He told me about an elderly woman with advanced dementia who is living in her long-established family home due to the severity of her condition. It is clinically recognised that she must remain in familiar surroundings to avoid significant cognitive and psychological deterioration. Disruption, relocation or institutionalisation would be deeply distressing and harmful. Her sibling, who is her primary carer, owns adjoining land where a side-by-side dwelling could be constructed that would allow him to take care of her while preserving her safety, dignity and well-being. However, permission for a side-by-side development may be refused on the apparent basis that dementia is not considered an eligible disability under the current interpretation. The condition is not visible, and the proposal does not fit the narrow definition of an adapted house.
This is very worrying and this position is wholly untenable. The situation is compounded by the fact that the existing house is so structurally damaged that it will not survive another winter. The family has no viable option to remain there. As a last resort, they explored the possibility of placing a mobile home on the land. However, following an assessment by the woman's medical team, her brother was informed that the mobile home is not suitable for her medical and care needs. This leaves a deeply troubling question. What exactly is this family supposed to do? By restricting side-by-side developments to certain categories of disability, the current policy discriminates against people with non-visible and cognitive disabilities, contrary to the Disability Act 2005, ignores well-established medical evidence regarding dementia care, undermines the principles of reasonable accommodation and proportionality and places vulnerable individuals at risk of unnecessary institutionalisation or severe harm.
Dementia is a recognised disability under Irish law and the international human rights framework. Any planning or housing policy that excludes it explicitly, or in practice, is fundamentally flawed. The current interpretation of the side-by-side housing amendment may be constitutionally vulnerably as applied, having regard to Articles 40, 41 and 43 of Bunreacht na hÉireann, particularly when read in conjunction with the Disability Act 2005.
The exclusion of persons with non-visible disabilities, such as advanced dementia, raises issues of equality, proportionality and the State's obligation to vindicate personal and family rights.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2025-12-16/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:28+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-12-16