Taoiseach to meet disabled rights campaigners

Bertie Ahern is due to meet disabled rights campaigners today to discuss the proposed Disabilities Bill.

The Disability Legislation Consultation Group has called on the Government to ensure that the bill gives disabled people a fundamental right to access services, a move the Fianna Fáil-Progressive Democrats Government is resisting.

The Government opposes rights-based legislation because disabled people could sue if these rights were denied.

Angela Kerins, the consultation group's chairperson, said people with disabilities are frequently denied services such as access to public transport. She said the only way to ensure that such services were provided was to make them a right that the State is obliged to provide.