Today, disabled people will discover if they have to keep fighting for decency

TODAY, the Disability Bill will be published. And with it, a lot of questions will be answered.

Will people with disabilities finally be taken from the back of the political queue? Will parents be able to rest secure that the independence and dignity of their children will remain intact when they die? Will people whose life chances depend on speech therapy, one-to-one education or behavioural therapy, get those services as a right? Will access to public buildings, railway stations, shops or offices become the norm in Ireland rather than the exception? Will people with moderate, severe and profound disabilities set out in life with a statement of their needs, a statement that must be honoured by the system?

Or will there be cruel disillusionment?

All the indications are that the Government intends to announce a package of measures today. There will be legislation (and we’ll come back to that in a moment); there will be money; and there will be what I believe will be called sectoral plans. Presumably the latter means a health plan, an education plan, an employment plan, a plan for residential services - and perhaps other plans.

The plans and the money will be, according to the rumours, set out over three to five years, and the promise will be that the money will be copper-fastened in some fashion. There is even the possibility that on Wednesday week, when the Taoiseach announces his reshuffle, disability will be elevated to cabinet status, as further proof of the Government’s good intentions.

Sounds good, doesn’t it? And later today we’ll know if the rumours are right.

I have no doubt that whatever is announced will be welcomed. I know that some of the larger service providers are under gentle pressure, from very senior sources, to say good things about the package.

“There’s funding in this for ye,” is the message they have been getting, “but we need your help to make sure the legislation gets a welcome.”

I hope it does. I hope it deserves a welcome. I hope, above all, that it isn’t a big con job.

I know that whatever I say about this will be seen in some quarters as sour grapes, and in others as yet another snipe at Fianna Fáil and the PDs. I don’t mean it so.

I want, by the end of today, to be able to say that I was wrong to voice suspicion, that I genuinely believe this Government is finally about to embark on what I regard as the last great civil rights campaign. People who have grown old and tired in the struggle for dignity and independence, people who have died in despair, people who have seriously contemplated taking their children with them when they go, are all involved in a silent, desperate struggle for decency. They deserve to have that struggle recognised.

If the Government is serious, this is what you will see this afternoon - and let’s leave the legislation until last.

First of all, the money. It’s going to take an increase in current and capital spending of about €250m to €300m a year, over about five years, to end the waiting lists, and to ensure that people who need residential, training and respite places, will get them when they need them. It’s going to cost perhaps another €100m a year to put a personal assistance scheme in place for people who can live independently with that kind of support. It’s going to cost money - I have no idea how much - to ensure that the issue of access to buildings, transport and amenities is dealt with once and for all.

As they say in business, that’s a big ask.

It would be easy to promise it now, and to make it conditional on “completion” of sectoral plans after, say, a further year of consultation. That wouldn’t cost a red cent, but would sew the impression into the public mind that all these problems had been solved. What would be difficult, perhaps even radical, would be to enshrine the plan, and therefore the money, in law.

There are precedents for this approach. The Horse and Greyhound Racing Act 2001 established a fund guaranteeing around €250m of tax revenue for those industries over four to five years.

Under the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission Act of 2003, a fund of around €300m of tax revenue was created to fund the operations of the Oireachtas for the following three years.

So it is entirely possible for the Government to announce that not only are they going to create a fund to address all the disability issues over a period of years, but they are going to enshrine that fund in law, in the Disability Bill itself. If they are not willing to do that, they are asking people to believe that the commitments announced at the major press launch planned for this afternoon will be honoured year by year.

YOU may remember that some years ago, when Brian Cowen was minister for health, he announced a major plan to end the scandal of St Ita’s Portrane, a place that reflects nothing but discredit on Ireland. At the time, £13m (around €15m) was allocated, over a period of years, to finally put a decent development in place. I have no doubt that Brian Cowen made that announcement in good faith. But guess what? The money was never spent, and St Ita’s was never redeveloped.

That’s one of the reasons - and there are lots more - why people with disabilities don’t put much faith in promises.

The second thing you will need to see is the capacity building programme. Throughout our years of plenty, there was plenty of opportunity to expand the number of professionals in this field, the psychologists, social workers, therapists, teachers, classroom assistants.

It wasn’t done, at least not on any coherent or planned basis. And as a result, there are huge waiting lists for nearly everything - waiting lists that money alone can’t solve. We need to be educating and training a lot more people, and clearly that takes time. But it will never happen unless it’s started, unless a government takes the issue by the scruff of the neck.

Will we see that today?

And finally, will the bill contain real rights, even on a graduated basis? Will it say, in effect, “look, it’s going to take a few years of planning, building and investment to right all the wrongs of the past. We’re guaranteeing to do that in this bill and, what’s more, to do it in consultation with you. And when bricks and mortar and appropriate staff are in place, the rights and entitlements we’re putting into law now will kick in, and your guarantee of independence and dignity will be there for ever more.”

Will it?

Or will it be a set of political promises, diluted by legislation that offers no real guarantee for the future, no rights and entitlements to anything other than the reluctant and politically expedient goodwill of the government of the day?

They’ve been working on it for several years; they have the power, they certainly have the resources. Let’s hope this time they get it right.