Continued deferral of Disability Bill a 'joke'

DISABILITY groups last night described the Government's continued deferral of the long-awaited Disability Bill as a joke.

Speaking in the Dáil yesterday, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said the bill - publication of which has already been promised several times - would be finally published before the next Dáil term begins at the end of September. "The Disability Bill is very close to final drafting," he said, promising to publish the legislation in August or September.

A draft of the Disability Bill was first published in December 2001 before being controversially scrapped the following year after an onslaught of criticism of the bill's lack of enforceable rights.