PD silence on disability bill ‘an insult to disabled’

FAILURE by a single Progressive Democrat TD to address the Dáil on the controversial Disability Bill has been criticised by Fine Gael as an insult to people with disabilities.

Fine Gael’s Social, Family Affairs and Equality spokesman David Stanton said it was a travesty that neither Health Minister Mary Harney nor Justice Minister Michael McDowell, who head up the two most important government departments controlling the Bill, had spoken in Dáil debates on the matter.

“When the so-called National Disability Strategy was unveiled last year the two PD Cabinet ministers were happy to attend the self-congratulatory press launch and smile for the cameras,” Mr Stanton said.

However, since then, Mr Stanton said, both ministers, along with the rest of the PD Dáil members “have not uttered one word about the Disability Bill in a protracted debate in the Dáil”.

While spokesmen for Ms Harney and the Department of Health were unavailable for comment yesterday, a spokeswoman for Mr McDowell said he did not need to speak since Fianna Fáil’s Frank Fahey was leading the Bill.

The spokeswoman said previous Justice Minister John O’Donoghue had not spoken on the first version of the bill, which the Government was forced to abandon in the lead up to the 2002 general election. However, Mr Stanton said the silence of the PDs was “insulting to people with disabilities”.

Amendments to the latest version of the controversial Bill will be debated today in the Oireachtas.