Disabled people sent to back of the queue
The meeting called on the Government to produce the long-awaited disability bill.
In February 2002, the last government withdrew the disability bill in an unprecedented move to alleviate the anger of people with disabilities over its restrictive measures.
This Government is preparing a new disability bill after the debacle of the first one. Unless this bill establishes enforceable rights to services based on the prioritisation of need we will be back again year after year with tales of heartbreak and hardship.
From our consultations with Government, it appears that the new legislation will not be rights-based and rather than incur, once again, the anger of people with disabilities it seems as though a deliberate decision has been made to delay the publication date until after the local and European elections.
What sort of message does this send out to people with disabilities and their families? Once again they are being asked to return to the end of the queue.
At the moment there are: lover 3,500 people with an intellectual disability on waiting lists for services in Ireland;
over 1,600 people waiting for a residential place;
over 1,400 people on waiting lists for respite services, and
over 680 waiting for a day service.
There are 457 people at home without any service at all and over 450 people with intellectual disability living in deplorable conditions in psychiatric hospitals (Dept of Health, 2003).
But despite numerous promises of publication dates from both the Taoiseach and minister of state Willie O’Dea, no bill has been published.
We must remember that a rights-based bill is not just a demand from the disability movement.
The programme for government has a firm commitment to a bill that will contain individual rights of assessment, provision and enforcement.
And that is what we want.
How long will it take?
Jean Spain,
7, Grange Park Green,
Raheny,
Dublin 5.
