Ms Geraldine McGahey:

That is a good way to describe it sometimes. The equality commission has been calling for law reform on so many different aspects of equality for many years. I do not think that we can entirely blame Westminster for this. Our own Assembly has failed to introduce any legislation from an equality perspective since it was set up, except on foot of a private Members’ Bill. That is not an appropriate way to run Government. All we can do is keep lobbying to have the programme for Government include these issues. I have spent this past year talking to political parties to ensure that this remains high on their agenda. We will keep lobbying, advocating and applying pressure. We have an opportunity to take legal action where the UK Government has failed to live up to its commitments, but that is in relation to annex 1 - the six directives. In this particular case, the accessibility Act falls outwith of that and, therefore, is not as straightforward. However, it is important to everyone in Northern Ireland and our disability legislation does require reform. We will be attempting and endeavouring to ensure that the aspects of this Act that strengthen what people in Northern Ireland have are incorporated within the reform of disability legislation.