Michael Smith (Tipperary North, Fianna Fail)

I move amendment No. 1:

To delete all words after "Dáil Éireann" and substitute the following:

" —endorses the Government's intention to circulate a Disability Bill to the Oireachtas as soon as possible to support and underpin participation by people with disabilities in society;

—notes that the Bill will, among other things:

—establish systems for assessment of need, service provision, and redress, including enforcement;

—facilitate access to public buildings, services and information;

—include a statutory basis for six key sectoral plans in the areas of the built environment; passenger transport, including marine transport; services to be provided by the health boards; social services including advocacy and sign language interpretation services; and training and employment services;

— limit the use of genetic data;

—put targets for the employment of people with disabilities in the public service on a statutory basis; and

—provide for a Centre for Excellence in Universal Design;

—acknowledges the complexity and cross cutting nature of the issues involved in preparing the Disability Bill;

—recognises the value of the Government's broad ranging consultation process with the disability sector, particularly through the DLCG, a group representative of people with disabilities, their families, carers and service providers;

—recognises the need for the further development of services to people with intellectual, physical and sensory disabilities, autism and mental illness and commends the actions taken by this Government and the former Government since 1997 in meeting this commitment, which include the allocation of additional funding of approximately €733 million;

—approves the Government's commitment to put in place an enhanced level of health service provision in line with the programme for Government;

—notes that the Government is committed to working with all stakeholders to providing the maximum support to people with disabilities in accessing vocational training and employment services, and ensure that people with disabilities get every opportunity possible to reach their full potential in the open labour market thereby increasing their independence and allowing them to play their full part in the world of work;

—commends Government policy on the mainstreaming of vocational training and employment service provision to people with disabilities involving:

—developing the skills of people with disabilities to enable them to access employment;

—stimulating awareness amongst employers of the contribution which people with disabilities can make to their businesses and encouraging companies to more actively consider recruiting people with disabilities; and

—providing specific employment supports for people with disabilities and employers;

—welcomes the fact that FÁS helped over 3,000 people with disabilities to find employment and over 1,900 people placed in training, in 2003;

—acknowledges the achievements of the Government in introducing action plans for social and affordable housing for the period 2004-2008 that will make provision for the responses of each local authority in relation to their social and affordable housing programmes including the elderly and persons with a disability;

—notes the significant improvement of the funding and conditions relating to the disabled persons grant scheme since 1998:

—the maximum grant has doubled from €10,158 to €20,320;

—increased levels of demand with expenditure on scheme increasing from €13 million for 2,455 grants in 1998 to €50 million for 5,739 grants in 2003;

—welcomes the substantial growth in the resources which are directed towards the education of children with disabilities in the form of more than 200 extra learning support teachers, more than 2,400 extra resource teachers and an extra 1,000 special needs assistants, when compared with the levels employed in 1998;

—welcomes the framework being put in place by the Government to underpin the equal participation by people with disabilities in Irish society including:

—the proposed Disability Bill;

—the Education for Persons with Disabilities Bill, 2003 which is currently at Report Stage in the Dáil;

—the Comhairle (Amendment) Bill which is being prepared in the Department of Social and Family Affairs in relation to the provision of advocacy services;

—sectoral plans for key public services; and

— equality legislation to be updated by the Equality Bill, 2004 which is currently at Second Stage in the Dáil."

The proposed motion is very broad-ranging, and covers legislative proposals, policy development, service provision and some of the social, family and personal difficulties which undoubtedly arise for certain people with disabilities. I propose to deal with the issues as they relate to the disability Bill and the framework for disability service provision. Other speakers will cover the range of issues that span the roles of several other Departments. I will focus on how Government policy has developed in recent years to effectively promote and safeguard the right of people with disabilities to equal treatment and how our current strategy will enhance the infrastructure for service delivery, improve accessibility and introduce a number of related positive actions.

Deputies will be aware of the Government's commitment to prepare a disability Bill which will support the social inclusion of people with disabilities. This was spelt out clearly in An Agreed Programme for Government which states that the Government will "complete consultations on the Disabilities Bill and will bring the amended Bill through the Oireachtas and include provisions for rights of assessment, appeals, provision and enforcement." The intention is to give statutory effect to a range of important policies as they relate to people with disabilities, establish systems for assessment of need and service provision and specify appropriate administrative infrastructure.

The Bill will also address other important issues, including access to public buildings, information and mainstream public services, the use of genetic testing data, positive action for public service employment and the concept of universal design. The Bill will provide a statutory basis for sectoral planning regarding services of particular importance to people with disabilities, namely, transport, training and employment, health and personal social services, social welfare, advocacy and physical infrastructure.

The Government has progressively advanced the disability equality agenda in recent years, building on the conclusions of the report of the Commission on the Status of People with Disabilities of 1996. To date, there have been three important phases in the process. First, the enactment of anti-discrimination legislation and, second, the mainstreaming of service delivery for people with disabilities. The third phase in the process centres on strengthening service delivery and involves the preparation of a broad-ranging positive action framework, one element of which is the disability Bill.

In the course of recent debate on disability issues, people may to some extent have lost sight of how the measures taken since the report of the Commission on the Status of People with Disabilities compare with what the commission recommended. Listening to some commentators, one might be inclined to conclude that no action had been taken to follow up on the commission's work. This impression has been reinforced by recent calls to introduce the disability legislation recommended by the commission. To put the record into some perspective, much of the central focus of the commission's recommendations was for legislation that would eradicate discrimination against people with disabilities. The legislation sought by the commission would outlaw discrimination with particular reference to the provision of services by State and semi-State bodies, private amenities which offer services to the public, the insurance industry as well as in employment and education. The overall thrust of the commission's legislative recommendation was to ensure that discrimination was outlawed and that effective sanctions against any attempted discrimination would be introduced.

While it is true that no legislation has been enacted which has addressed disability discrimination only, Deputies are well aware that strong multi-ground employment equality and equal status legislation has been in place since 1998 and 2000, respectively. It is in this context that many of the recommendations of the Commission on the Status of People with Disabilities have already been realised. The legislation is among the most advanced in Europe and pre-dates recent EU directives which can be expected to enhance equality legislation in many European countries.

Under the Employment Equality Act 1998 and the Equal Status Act 2000, people who are discriminated against on the grounds of disability or any one of eight other grounds have a statutory right of redress. The equality infrastructure which supports this right comprises two elements, namely, the Equality Authority whose role is to work towards the achievement of equality of opportunities and the elimination of discrimination, and the Equality Tribunal which makes determinations regarding complaints of discrimination and offers mediation in suitable cases.

Some relevant statistics indicate that the equality infrastructure is well used and recognised. In 2003, for instance, complaints on disability grounds accounted for approximately 10% of cases referred to the Equality Tribunal. It is interesting that the numbers of cases referred under the Equal Status Act were nearly double those for employment equality issues. This reflects the fact that employment rights have been widely recognised for some time. In addition, the right to equal treatment in the provision of goods and services is being more actively pursued and receiving appropriate support from statutory bodies.

The enactment of our anti-discrimination legislation was followed in 2000 by the launch by the Taoiseach of a mainstreaming approach to disability service delivery. In this context, mainstreaming means the delivery of service for people with disabilities by public bodies which provide the service for everybody else. The approach replaced a service delivery model which bore the hallmarks of separation and segregation with one that seeks to focus on the integration of services for people with disabilities with the generality of public service provision.

It is worth noting that the mainstreaming principle has been carried through in the preparation of the proposed disability Bill. This work, perhaps more than any other legislation in the past, has required the active and concentrated engagement of a range of Departments, focusing specifically on the most effective ways to enhance mainstream service delivery and support access for people with disabilities.

I note the motion proposed by the Opposition calls for a form of consultative summit on disability issues. Extensive consultations have taken place with representatives of the disability sector about the disability Bill. The Bill is a proposal for legislation and, like other legislation, it is the intention of Government to present it to the Houses of the Oireachtas for debate by elected representatives in the usual manner. I remain to be convinced that the normal legislative process will not provide the appropriate forum for the required debate on the disability Bill.

The disability Bill is part of the present phase of policy development the Government is undertaking to further advance participation in society by persons with disabilities. Recalling the collaborative work of the Commission on the Status of People with Disabilities, the Government has established and maintained close consultation with the disability sector during the preparation of the legislative proposals. In April 2002, an expert consultation team of experts in legal, economic and social affairs was appointed to oversee the consultation process. The team met stakeholders, including the Disability Legislation Consultation Group, the social partners, the community and voluntary sector and relevant Departments and received their views before completing its task in February 2003.

The Disability Legislation Consultation Group is an organisation representative of people with disabilities, their families, carers and service providers which was brought together by the National Disability Authority to facilitate dialogue at national level within the sector and with the Government.

See this speech in context