Sinnott rejects claims of improved disability rights

DISABILITY rights campaigner Kathy Sinnott rejects claims of the Disability Alliance for Europe a Yes vote would give improved services to disabled people in applicant countries.

"The sheer dishonesty of that needs to be answered. Ireland is 30 years in the EU and we still have 1,000 adults with disabilities locked up in subhuman conditions. Even in Ireland, we don't meet the needs of the disabled," she said. The EU was not a magic solution for all disability needs, Ms Sinnott said, adding that the Disability Alliance for Europe is headed by National Disability Authority chairperson Angela Kerins - a Government appointee to a Government agency.

Despite the booming economy, the disabled were not being looked after, she said, and even after 30 years in the EU, last year the Government tried to introduce retrograde and insulting legislation governing disabled people. "At the moment, we in the disability sector are under incredible pressure from cutbacks. There is 1.8 million spent on the Yes vote. I am really practical. If you gave me that money, I could change a great number of people's lives for the better," Ms Sinnott said.

But Angela Kerins said that throughout the campaign, she had said that there was still an awful lot left to be done in this country for people with disabilities and their families.

The benefits of EU membership would come in the training and employment of people with disabilities, she said. "The EU doesn't cover everything but our campaign is about trying to highlight the plight of people with disabilities in other countries. What we are trying to do is stand side-by-side with other countries," Ms Kerins said.

Speaking at the launch of the Women Against Nice campaign, Ms Sinnott said she was against small countries having to give up power, but she was not against enlargement. "I would love to see enlargement, but I want to see them treated the same as we were. I think the enlargement countries should get the same as we got in this country. I do think we need a real debate on Europe. Let's have the treaty created out of that debate," she said.

Against the creation of Federal Europe, Ms Sinnott said the No side in the Nice campaign would be a good model for Europe.

"They showed it is possible for all kinds of disparate groups to work together for a common goal,"she added.