Disability groups unite to oppose Bill

DISABILITY groups from around the country will gather in Dublin tonight to keep pressure on the Government not to enact the new Disability Bill.

The meeting will also address the shortcomings of the disability funding package announced by the Government in the Budget.

Yesterday a spokesperson for namhi, the National Association for the Mentally Handicapped of Ireland, said the Bill was fundamentally flawed because instead of enforceable rights, disabled people would only have a right of assessment of needs without a guaranteed right to required services.

Phrases such as "where resources allow" and "where practicable" are used to indicate that the availability of services will still be subject to the whim of the Government, she said.

"It proposes an assessment of needs but the needs are restricted to health and education, they are not across the board. Also the definition of disability is too narrow it could in fact preclude people who have a disability from the right to assessment," the spokesperson said.

The proposed new assessment system was over-bureaucratic, requiring assessment officers, liaison officers, complaints officers and appeals officers, she added.

The new legislation will also limit the opportunity to resort to the courts to fight for services. It precludes people from taking the legal route if they are unhappy with the service provided following assessment.

It is the second Disability Bill in four years to provoke outrage.

Following the withdrawal of an earlier Disability Bill in 2001, the Government established the Disability Legislation Consultation Group to represent people with disabilities in the formulating of a new Bill.

After countrywide debate, a document was submitted to the Government, outlining the core elements that the group unanimously agreed needed to be addressed in legislation.

Speakers at tonight's meeting in the RDS at 7.30pm include Maurice Manning, Human Rights Commission; Seamus Greene, National Parents and Siblings Alliance; Mary Keogh, Forum of People with Disabilities and Katherine O'Leary, namhi.