An official website of the Government of Ireland. About ireland.ie

Accessibility policy

Statement of commitment

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) is committed to making its website accessible, in accordance with European Union (Accessibility of Websites and Mobile Applications of Public Sector Bodies) Regulations 2020 (Statutory Instrument No. 358/2020).

Scope

This accessibility statement applies to the website Ireland.ie. It does not apply to other DFAT online applications, such as passportonline.dfa.ie.

Compliance status

This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.2 level AA, due to the non-compliances listed below.

Non-accessible statement

Non-compliance

  • Audio descriptions are not provided for any prerecorded multimedia files. This is non-compliant with requirements 9.1.2.3 and 9.1.2.4 of the EN 301 549 v3.2.1 – the harmonised European standard for Accessibility requirements for ICT products and services. (WCAG success criteria equivalents: 1.2.3 and 1.2.5)
  • Complete captions are not provided for all prerecorded multimedia files. This is non-complaint with 9.1.2.2 of the EN 301 549 v3.2.1. (WCAG 1.2.2)
  • This website’s cookie consent banner is not accessible in the following ways:
  • Documents, such as PDFs, Word docs, spreadsheets and digitised PDFs (‘flipbooks’) are often not accessible on this website. As a result, they do not meet EN 301 549 v3.2.1 requirements for non-web documents (Clause 10), which incorporate the relevant WCAG 2.1 Level A/AA success criteria for documents. Examples of common gaps include:
    • Missing/incorrect tagging and reading order (1.3.1, 1.3.2)
    • Missing alternative text (1.1.1)
    • Insufficient colour contrast (1.4.3)
    • Use of images of text (1.4.5)
    • Lack of reflow on small screens (1.4.10)
    • Non-text contrast and text-spacing issues (1.4.11, 1.4.12)
    • Missing document titles and meaningful link text (2.4.2, 2.4.4)
    • Inadequate headings/labels (2.4.6)
    • Missing language metadata (3.1.1, 3.1.2)
    • Inaccessible form fields (3.3.1, 3.3.2, 3.3.3)
    • Incomplete role/value information (4.1.2)

Out of scope

  • Third-party embeds, such as for social media.
  • Third-party scripts:
    • Passport Office WebChat
    • Consulate General San Francisco’s chatb

Date this statement was prepared

This statement was prepared on 28 November 2025.

Method used to prepare this statement

This statement was prepared using the results of automated and manual testing by DFAT and the Quality Assurance team in OGCIO, and an automated and manual review carried out by the National Disability Authority.

Last review date

This statement was last reviewed on 28 November 2025.

Feedback and contact information

If you find any problems with accessibility on this website, or if you need the website’s information in a different format, please contact the Department’s Disability Inquiry Officer.

Enforcement procedure

If you contact us through our accessibility feedback and request mechanism above, and are not satisfied with our response, you can use one of the routes below.

Disability Act 2005

If your complaint is about our accessibility duties under the Disability Act 2005 (for example, access to information or services on our website), you can:

  1. Complain to us, by writing to the Secretary General of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, stating that this is a Section 38 complaint under the Disability Act. The Secretary general will appoint an Inquiry Officer to investigate and issue a written finding.
  2. If you are not satisfied with the result of the internal investigation above, you can ask the Office of the Ombudsman to review your complaint. Please see ombudsman.ie for details of how to make a complaint to the Ombudsman.

Equal Status Acts 2000-2018

If your complaint is about discrimination or a failure to provide reasonable accommodation when using our website and its services, you can:

  1. Notify us within 2 months of the incident
  2. If you do not receive a satisfactory answer from us within 1 month, you can make a complaint to the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) within 6 months of the incident.

Please see the WRC website for information on how to make an Equal Status complaint.