We have nothing to fear and everything to gain from equality

TODAY, the DLCG meets the Taoiseach. Why is it so important a meeting and what is it about?

The DLCG, or Disability Legislation Consultation Group, was set up by the Government after the withdrawal of the Disability Bill last year.

That bill was published by the first Fianna Fáil-Progressive Democrat Government in fulfilment of an electoral commitment to ensure that people with disabilities would have rights. It was the "better bill" promised by the Government when they voted down an opposition measure drafted by parents providing basic rights to people with disabilities.

The FF-PD bill, far from being an improvement, was a disaster. Not only did it fail to contain any rights, it included a clause to prevent people going to court in pursuit of better services for themselves or their children. People with disabilities were so outraged by the bill that they mounted a huge campaign to have it withdrawn.

After the Sinnott case and the debacle of the first Disability Bill the Government promised to undertake a proper consultative process before coming back with new legislation. They also said that they would introduce two bills one dealing with the already established constitutional right to education and one dealing with rights to other necessary services. We've seen neither yet. They set up the DLCG, under Angela Kerins of the NDA, to carry out the consultative process. That process took a year and was very comprehensive as well as buying time for the Government to consider its position. The DLCG report contained little comfort. It called explicitly for rights. That report has now been supported further by a strong statement from the Human Rights Commission (another body established by the Government under the Good Friday Agreement). The Human Rights Commission has come out strongly in favour of rights-based legislation too.

The DLCG has already met Willie O'Dea, the junior minister in charge of the legislation in the Department of Justice. It was clear from that meeting that, although they had his goodwill, a junior minister cannot carry anything through government without the support of senior colleagues who sit at the cabinet table. Hence the dilemma and hence the urgency of the meeting. There is clear opposition in the Cabinet to the concept of rights-based legislation and it comes from very powerful ministers, including Willie O'Dea's boss, Michael McDowell, and the Minister for Finance. Without the support of the Taoiseach, the next bill is likely to be a milk-and-water version of what is really needed.

And the Taoiseach is already on record as saying that he doesn't like the concept of rights, because people always run to the courts in pursuit of their rights. The subtext of this, of course, is that a compensation culture creeps up around rights give me my rights or give me compo.

The families of people with disabilities find this argument particularly offensive.

Although some families have been forced into court to pursue services their children desperately need, none has ever gone willingly. And there is no history at all of people looking for compo in respect of their own or their children's disabilities.

There are two questions. Why are rights so necessary? And why is the Government so afraid of them?

Before I try to answer those questions, let me say one thing. I honestly believe that partly because of (maybe largely because of) the Special Olympics, there is a huge level of awareness throughout our community now of the barriers that people with intellectual disability have to overcome.

There is awareness of and respect for the fact that people with intellectual disabilities aren't diminished in the things that often matter most courage, determination, sociability, team skills, discipline and so on. (One man who had been at a number of Special Olympics events said to me: "How can you call this sport? There's no money, no performance-enhancing drugs, no transfer fees, no celebrities, no temper tantrums, no violence on the pitch or off it, no bad winners or losers.")

After the Games, which ignited a spirit throughout the community none of us had ever seen before, I honestly believe that if the Government doesn't live up to its commitments, it will be placed high on the list of things for which they will not be forgiven.

WHY do they need rights? Because being born with a disability, or acquiring one, means entering a different world. It is a world where bureaucracy and charity often combine to ensure that the last thing afforded to the person with a disability is ordinary human dignity. It is a world where the person is blamed, consciously or unconsciously, for their disability. It is a world of queues and waiting lists for everything.

There are children who need wheelchairs. There are children who need a constant supply of material and equipment because he or she has to be fed intravenously. There are adults who need oxygen supplies. There are people who need support because of incontinence. There are people who need extra supports in school and at work. And they all have to battle for them filling in endless forms, making their case again and again, joining queues.

They don't even have a right to an assessment of their needs.

And that's just the basics. Try getting on a DART or crossing the majority of our roads in a wheelchair. Try bringing a friend with cerebral palsy into a pub, or getting an appropriate taxi or any form of public transport.

Right-based legislation is a law which says 'if you have a disability, you have the right to the basic things you need to cope with that disability. You shouldn't have to depend on charity, or battle with a faceless bureaucracy to get them'.

Of course, a right is not a right unless it's enforceable and any law which fails to establish strong and independent means of enforcement (including the last resort of recourse to the courts) would be a con trick.

Why is the Government afraid? Two reasons, both spurious.

The first is the ideological fear that granting any form of economic right to a citizen would diminish the power of the Government and the legislature to allocate resources. The second is that it would open the floodgates and that not only would people with disabilities be making unreasonable demands, but everyone else would want the same rights.

I was reminded this week that those same arguments were used about 30 years ago to keep married women out of the workplace. Equality is an economic right and the establishment of equality in terms of access to work for married women was equally feared. But there was no reason. At first the economy adjusted to the removal of the marriage bar, then it thrived.

Equality across the sexes was achieved by breaking down barriers through legislation and it worked.

Because it's about breaking down barriers, I believe the case of people with disabilities is the last great civil rights campaign. Our Taoiseach should be leading that campaign, not following. One thing is for sure if Bertie is brave enough, he has nothing to fear. It's only his courage that remains to be seen.