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.

Since then, despite several promises to publish an updated version of the bill, the Government has repeatedly extended its time limit.

Yesterday, National Association for the Mentally Handicapped of Ireland (NAMHI) general secretary, Deirdre Carroll, said it was completely unsatisfactory that many other new pieces of legislation could be published and passed while the Disability Bill was persistently postponed.

"At the drop of a hat we can have legislation and referenda brought forward within a very short time. The Disability Bill is something which is in the Programme for Government. Really, it's become part of a joke now," she said.

Ms Carroll called on the Government to keep its latest commitment to publish this summer.

"I think that it's really unsatisfactory. I just think at this stage the bill is put out there in the public so we can see the good parts and the bad parts and it can form the basis for us to move forward," she said.

Speaking in May, Mr Ahern promised the new disability legislation, when completed, would be the best in the world.

However, the contents of the bill remain contentious, as instead of enforceable rights disabled people will only have a right of assessment of needs without a guaranteed right to required services.