David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)

There is need for planning and for inclusion of people with disabilities in that planning. There is no dispute in this House about what needs to be done. What is in dispute is when. Unless the Bill is accompanied by real engagement in an action plan within an identified time frame, it will fail. Should that happen it will be tragedy for the disability sector and will set back progress for years.

I pay tribute to the disability legislation consultation group who have worked so hard to convince the Government that the Bill must provide real rights. Its document, Equal Citizens, is a clear blueprint for the legislation and for the progressive realisation of rights. No one expects all rights to appear tomorrow with the wave of a magic wand. However, there should not be barriers to inclusion. It is the political and moral duty of the State to in every way possible enable and encourage independent living for everyone with a disability. I commend the work done by the centres for independent living. To make independence a reality we must create a system that asks people not what they have but what they need to fulfil their potential.

We acknowledge that there has been massive investment by the Government but this improvement is coming from a very low base. The needs are still as great as ever. It is clear there is a lack of accountability in how the money is spent and the Government must address this issue. In the Dáil only last week, the Taoiseach underlined this when he said the €1.2 billion he claimed was spent in the disability sector "must be doing something". There is a clear need to ensure that the money Voted by this House is spent in a cost effective way and, above all, delivers appropriate services and supports to the people for whom it was intended. The Government, the Minister or the Department gives money to the various service providers who then provide services. However, even the Minister for Health and Children recently expressed his concern regarding accountability in the spending of this money. I do not claim that service providers are doing anything wrong but we must know where the money is going. Is it being spent properly and do service providers need assistance in deciding how it is spent?

The Government must immediately make plans to provide the kind of money that will accelerate the necessary change in tangible and practical ways. We need a new timetable of change that will allow people to take full advantage of educational and employment opportunities and lead to real service provision.

Incremental developments, dependent solely on economic growth, will not resolve this crisis. This is all a matter of political choice. Choices such as spending €52 million on electronic voting and millions of euros on Abbotstown or on Punchestown are made easily. It should be no hardship to plan with and for people with disabilities to vindicate their rights.

There is no further time to delay; the time is now. The Government should publish the Bill, agree to the summit and prove to people with disabilities that it has the will and the way to make the Bill work.

A man with a disability wrote the following on the eve of the budget of 1999:

Recognising the daily evidence of the spending power which is now all around us, how long more do you expect us to keep faith with the political process? Given the present booming state of our economy, how much longer are we expected to wait for delivery on commitments made a decade ago? Let us have no more false promises. Let budget day be the start of real, honest and sustained action to deliver on a long overdue commitment.

Has anything changed?

We need early intervention. The CABAS school in Cork, which has been operating on a pilot basis for years, is doing terrific work and needs to be established on a permanent basis. Many similar schools need to be provided.

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