Many disabilities not covered in new proposals
I was particularly curious that one group of children - those with dyslexia - would not need an assessment to qualify for support.
Perhaps the Government now realise the one and only good thing they have introduced in their Disability Bill is going to cost them an absolute fortune.
This is the right to a needs-based assessment. Now they are trying to bypass that right even before they have made it readily available. It has been suggested that these children will need support only until they recover.
This slots them neatly into a category mentioned in the bill, those with transitory conditions, who will not be considered to have a disability at all.
It was also stated that support will cease when the child moves on to secondary school. Why is there no continuity? Having studied the Disability Bill 2004, I believe it is a backward step and removing people’s rights to redress in the courts is scandalous.
If we look to the Disabilities Act 1990 in the USA we can see that the law got mapped out in the courts and the definition of disability began to evolve. We have a very narrow definition and have excluded many categories by insisting that the condition is permanent and substantial.
The Irish Examiner supplement on Ability in the Workplace (May 9) included many recognised disabilities that will now be excluded from the bill. These charities may be excluded from Government funding in the future.
How can we allow this bill to slip through? Many people affected by it are so busy looking after someone with a disability they have no time to protest.
As a parent of a son with autism I have been running a home-based programme for eleven years. I received a letter from the Department of Education and Science last Christmas announcing that the funding for home-tuition was being stopped this September.
I am sure many others were similarly advised. What the Government gives with one hand it takes away with the other. Under the Disability Bill any rights conferred on persons with disabilities are subject to all kinds of restraints making it virtually impossible to realise them. We should insist the bill be revised before it becomes law when our citizens with disabilities will be shoved back into a Third World service.
Denise Dalton
Sonas
Shanaway Road
Ennis
Co Clare
