‘No blank cheque for disabilities’

THE Government cannot provide an “open cheque book for people with disabilities” because there would be no money left for cancer or heart patients, Junior Justice Minister Willie O’Dea said last night.

Disability rights groups repeated their demands yesterday for rights-based legislation that would have no budgetary constraints.

But Mr O’Dea, who is due to bring in a new Disability Bill at the end of November, said that no country in the world provided absolute rights-based legislation without financial constraints.