Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)

We are at a different stage with regard to the Bill. We did not hold out any great hope that there would be any huge changes. Those of us who sat through Second and Committee Stages realised the Minister was not for turning and asked many questions but nothing happened.

My amendment relates to the Title of the Bill and asks for the deletion of lines 5 to 12 on page 5 and the insertion of the provision of certain rights for people with disability, including the right to the assessment of needs occasioned to them by their disability and to a statement of services commensurate with those needs, to enable Ministers of the Government to make provision for those services. If one was not aware of the background to this Bill, and had just dropped in from outer space or another country, one might think that on the face of it the amendment is very balanced and fair and not hard-hitting. However, if one knew the background to the Bill one would also realise that the amendment goes to the very essence and heart of the Bill.

This amendment refers to the person and how one deals with a person who has a disability. This Government would like to regard people in terms of their disability. However, that is not what this legislation should be about in any way. It should be about the person and how we can provide services to ensure he or she can live as normal a life as possible. People should have a right to be able to come in to the House and listen to us, not that we always make much sense. We should not have superior rights to others and this is what my amendment is about. It is concerned with treating people as equal citizens and dealing with the difficulties which we have placed in their way.

The list of amendments is possibly longer than the Bill itself, and I would like to get through as many of them as possible. There are certain elements of the amendments which the Minister should examine. He promised to come back to the committee with regard to the issue of the Ombudsman and the DLCG. What happened with regard to that undertaking? Was it agreeable? Has it fallen apart? I was speaking to somebody involved in one of the groups that has walked away from the consultation process. He was not angry or annoyed, just completely disillusioned. He finds it very difficult to cope and feels that the Government is like the Grand Old Duke of York in that it marched the group up the hill only to turn around and march it down again. He said that the Government kept the group within a consultation process for two years, always holding out the promise and expectation that it was listening. However, it did not listen. Its mouth was shut but its ears were not open. As a result we have legislation that bears no relationship to the needs of people with disabilities.

It is certain that this Bill will end up in the courts, some elements quicker than others. We cannot afford to do it but we cannot afford not to — I am of a generation that heard that argument in respect of equal pay for women. The same economy now demands that women go out to work but states that it cannot afford child care or to give equal rights to people who happen to have a disability. I do not accept that argument. Of all of the things we can afford, we can afford justice.

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