Disability: reality is way behind the rhetoric
The key issue seems to centre on the wording ‘where appropriate’.
This clause seems to offer a convenient opportunity for the Government to renege on its often vague commitments and lip service to the needs of people with disabilities.
The evidence to support this is to be found on the shelves of the Law Library in the transcripts of a number of high profile court cases - the Sinnott and O’Donoghue cases spring to mind.
In recent years the Government has performed acts of escapology using the ‘where appropriate’ technique. This becomes even more evident when attempts are made to ensure that government provides adequate services for people with intellectual disabilities.
Another criticism of the act is the lack of accessible information on it for people with a range of disabilities.
I had great difficulty accessing a synopsis of the act. Although I have been informed by a civil servant in the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform that work is under way to create a summary of the act, I was given no indication that it would be available in a variety of accessible formats.
The lack of accessible formats of the act represents the real truth behind the spin almost six months after publication.
It’s a disgrace that the act is not accessible in a suitable version for the people that it affects.
This is another example of how people with disabilities are often excluded from access to services, decision-making and policies that affect them.
Governments want to be seen to be saying the right things about disability issues, but their actions do not reflect their rhetoric.
Paul Horan
Lecturer in Intellectual Disability Nursing
Trinity College
Dublin 2
