Protests Force Withdrawal of Irish Disability Bill
By Kay Schriner (kays@uark.edu)
The Disability Bill, hailed by the Irish Minister of State at the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Mary Wallace, as assurance that disabled people would be "able to access the same rights as everyone else" has been withdrawn because of strong protests from the disability community there.
The Disability Bill was published at the end of 2001. According to Relate (a summary service for proposed legislation), the bill is "mainly concerned with placing duties on public bodies in relation to services for people with disabilities." It would "oblige public bodies to provide services" not currently available such as health needs assessments and advocacy services. It would also require that public bodies make their services and buildings accessible and provided in an integrated way "so far as is possible."
Almost immediately, the proposed bill drew fire from activists who complained about its provisions. A major criticism is that the bill adopts a "duties of public bodies" approach rather than a "rights of individuals approach." An individual with a disability would have no right to take legal action against a public body for failure to comply with the act.
Another serious objection concerned the implementation dates for the bill. For example, trains would not have to be accessible until 2015. Worse yet, the railway platforms would not have to be made accessible until 2020. As Fintan O'Toole, a columnist for the Irish Times, put it "You wait 13 years for the train to come and then discover that you can't get into the station for another five."
The bill's health care provisions have also been widely criticized. While the bill would require a health care assessment for individuals with disabilities, it also indicates that a "health board may dispense with an assessment of need if, in its opinion...such an assessment is otherwise inappropriate in the circumstances of the particular case."
Even when a person with disability got a health needs assessment, the health board has an out. It need only "take such steps as are reasonable to provide the service as soon as practicable and to the greatest practicable extent."
Fintan O'Toole called the Disability Bill a "game of snakes and ladders" in which "at the top of every ladder there is a snake. The ladders are nice statements about what should happen. The snakes are escape hatches which make it clear that public bodies have no real responsibilities to make it happen."
The Minister of State Mary Wallace has withdrawn the bill from the Oireachtas (Parliament) for the present, meaning that the bill cannot be passed during this legislative session. The Minister has said that she will consult with disability groups in drafting a new version of the bill.
A summary of the Disability Bill's provisions is available online.
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