Martin Ferris (Kerry North, Sinn Fein)

This could have been a Bill for all sides of this House and civil society to rally round and welcome. It could have been an example of international best practice and a source of national pride. Instead, it is an occasion for anger and despair. Many people with disabilities in this State, who were optimistic that the Government had got the message after the last occasion, feel completely disrespected by this Bill and this Government. They have come to the conclusion that the PD-led coalition has no intention of ensuring that people with disabilities assume their rightful place as equals in our society.

Sinn Féin shares this sense of outrage, and we are not alone. The scope of dissatisfaction with this Bill is immense. It can be seen not only from the serious concerns raised by the Human Rights Commission, the Equality Authority and the Twenty-six Counties National Disability Authority but also the dozens of disability groups, large and small, which made impassioned submissions to the Joint Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Women's Rights since the Bill was published.

The Disability Legislation Consultation Group, the very group the Government invited to allegedly guide its approach to this new legislation, has, after its good-faith engagement in negotiations, failed to yield results. It identified ten fundamental flaws in the Bill. They are as follows. The definition of "disability" is too narrow and will exclude people from protection. Contrary to Government claims, it does not provide a clear right to an independent assessment of needs. It makes no provision for an individual person's right to progressivity on their unmet needs.

The system of complaints is too complex and is not independent. It does not provide for ring-fencing of disability specific resources. It does not impose a clear statutory duty on Departments and all public bodies to make public policies, plans, programmes and services accessible and fully include people with disabilities, and the sectoral plans are not an adequate substitute for that. It is in conflict with the Equal Status Act and undermines pre-existing protection for people with disabilities. That alone should provide enough justification to scrap the Bill as proposed.

The Human Rights Commission believes that some of the Bill's provisions also conflict with the European Convention on Human Rights, now incorporated into our domestic law. There is no onus to even review the operation of the legislation for effectiveness.

The Taoiseach and the Ministers concerned are well aware of these and literally hundreds of other specified critiques that have been levelled at the Bill by many thoughtful people who have the most to gain but also the most to lose. This cynical Government knew of these concerns even before the Bill hit the printing presses.

The consultation on the Bill was a sham and the launch of the so-called national disability strategy was just another Government PR spectacle, a shiny object dangled to distract attention from its total lack of commitment to real rights and real progress. However, the people have not been fooled. The Disability Federation of Ireland has continually argued that good intentions are not enough and that we need to get it right. There must be a seismic shift in attitudes. This would require compulsion, it must be legislated for and can no longer be left to discretion and patronage. The DFI is correct. The Oireachtas has a choice: it can endorse the Bill and maintain the status quo, thereby obliging people with disabilities to remain second-class citizens and petitioners on the margins of society; or it can reject it and introduce better legislation which offers full inclusion.

Sinn Féin Deputies know where they stand and they reject the Bill because they have a vision for a very different future. We want a fully accessible Ireland of equals where all people with disabilities can reach their true potential as individuals because society will no longer disable but will rather enable them. This will also be an Ireland where disability rights lawsuits will be rare, not because the Government will have blocked legal avenues for redress but because it will have listened, fulfilled its statutory duty to promote equality and inclusion, committed resources and affected profound social change.

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