Ahern says Disability Bill will be rights-based
The move marks a significant U-turn by the Government on the policy it proposed in the controversial Disability Bill last year.
That bill was scrapped weeks before the general election because campaigners were outraged that it prohibited disabled people from pursuing their needs for essential services in the courts.
After a long consultation process involving all organisations for disabled people, Mr Ahern told disability support groups yesterday he is committed to rights-based legislation.
When it is enacted, the law will have an impact on access to all kinds of public services, including transport, environment, social welfare, health and education.
It will provide for independent assessment of needs, a right of appeal against decisions, with an officer to enforce appeals through the courts if necessary, and ultimate access to legal remedies where other enforcement mechanisms have not worked.
Mr Ahern said the redrafted Disability Bill will be published in November by Minister of State at the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform Willie O’Dea.
Both men spent an hour outlining the proposals to the Disability Legislation Consultation Group (DLCG), set up last year to put forward the views of those affected by the long-awaited laws.
A spokesperson for Mr Ahern said he favoured the greater access to courts to enforce rights upheld by the bill’s appeals mechanism.
“While he is committed to a workable means of redress under the bill, the Taoiseach had concerns that the rights-based approach could not always deliver in the simplistic way sometimes supposed to be its main advantage,” the spokesperson said.
DLCG chairperson Angela Kerins said it was an historic day to hear a Government make such commitments for the first time.
“We won’t be popping the champagne corks just yet, but if the bill delivers everything that was promised today, we will be very pleased indeed,” she said.
“There are over 350,000 people with disabilities in Ireland, and if you take each of their families, then well over a million people will have an interest in this legislation.”
The group, which met the Taoiseach, was impressed by his in-depth knowledge of the issues and felt he had been researching the matters of co ncern to them.
Fergus Finlay, disability campaigner and Labour Party chef de cabinet, welcomed the commitment to rights-based legislation. “We’ll wait and see what’s in the bill, but if the Government does finally deliver, people with disabilities will acknowledge that genuine progress has been made,” he said.
Meanwhile, Education Minister Noel Dempsey will publish the Education for Persons with Disabilities Bill this afternoon. It sets out to guarantee the education of children and people with disabilities as a right enforceable in law. The legislation failed to be passed in the final hours of the last Government before the May 2002 election. It will be watched by campaigners as a strong guide to the approach likely to be taken in the Disability Bill.
