Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)

My amendment is No. 1 but I concur with the purpose of amendment No. 5, which has the same intention as my amendment. This is not a disability Bill. It should be a rights for people with disabilities Bill because those groups who were drawn into the consultation process and involved in the discussions for the past two years believe they were cynically used over two years on a promise which has not been delivered. They see it as a betrayal. They engaged in the process in good faith but they have been let down because the rights they hoped for and were led to believe would be included in a Bill to address disability issues and the equal rights of people with disabilities have not been addressed.

While I recognise that a Title change does not reflect the actual contents of the Bill, that does not prevent us from changing it and adopting the amendments put by the Opposition who hope to change the intent of the Bill to one that will deliver rights. I urge the Minister to do the right thing and accept the recommendations of his Government's disability legislation consultation group and change the focus of the Bill, in keeping with the Government's promises to the DLCG and to the people with disabilities that rights based legislation would be the product of the long, drawn out consultation process, which only ended last week when the Minister met with different groups.

In proposing this amendment I urge the Minister to reflect on the responses of the DLCG member groups and the Government's treatment of them in the process. In their formal statement on 4 May of this year, in advance of a meeting with the Minister of State, the DLCG described the Minister's response to their position on the Bill's ten fundamental flaws as totally inadequate and fatally flawed. They stated: "As matters now stand, the sector will be compelled to condemn the Bill as a betrayal of the hopes of people with disabilities in Ireland". It is a pity it reached that stage because everybody hoped the rights would be provided.

Even with that warning, the consultation process was in danger of breaking down owing to Government intransigence. Within recent weeks the DLCG in good faith narrowed down the list of issues it wished to see addressed to a group of five key issues in the vain hope the Minister would move on some of them. These issues are pertinent to the change in the Title because they concern rights. The DLCG called for a clear and unequivocal right to an assessment of need, a right to the provision of services identified within a reasonable and agreed timeframe, clear protection of disabilities specific resources so these rights can be realised and a clear duty on all Departments and public bodies to include people with disabilities meaning every Department must provide a sectoral plan as a minimum.

The Forum of People with Disabilities, the only organisation in the State exclusively led by people with disabilities stated five days later on 9 May following a meeting with the Minister of State that its investment in the three-year process, "had yielded minimal results for the disability community". In the context of announcing its formal withdrawal from that process the forum said disabled people are left with political promises rather than justiciable rights. It stated it would ask all political parties to give a commitment to complete an immediate review of the legislation in their election manifestos. I give that commitment today on behalf of Sinn Féin.

Other members of the DLCG were just as scathing about the resource basis of this Bill. The Disability Federation of Ireland said:

As a nation we have put off inclusion by saying that we cannot afford it. We were told over and over again that "when things get better you will be looked after".

It also said:

Good intentions and honest attempts are not in themselves enough. We have to get it right.

The DFI called on us to live up to our responsibilities, stating the Oireachtas now has a clear choice between using this legislation to oblige the Government to fully include people with disabilities or to confirm that people with disabilities in Ireland remain as second class people. It reminded us that people with disabilities have been wrongly treated by our State. The key challenge for this legislation is to right a continuing wrong.

The DFI went on to say, "We should not have to continue to be inferior in status," but that the Government's approach means, "disabled people will remain petitioners on the edge of society". It warned us: "We will know whether we have become equal citizens by virtue of how the Oireachtas deals with the amendments to this Bill." They lived in hope and that is the basis on which this amendment and others have been tabled.

People with Disabilities Ireland expressed concern that the Bill is not rights-based and will reduce access to rights as it potentially excludes vast numbers of people with disabilities from the services they badly need because they may not need such service on a continual basis.

It is a disgrace that Members of the Opposition have been prevented from even proposing amendments to redress the definition issue owing to the decision of the Ceann Comhairle to rule out of order many amendments that would put this legislation right. Of my 59 original amendments, 38 were ruled out of order because they involved a potential charge on the Revenue. The Minister of State did not even get to debate them with us. Every single amendment is a charge on the Revenue by virtue of the fact that it is written down on paper that costs money to produce. Ruling amendments out of order because they involve a charge on the Revenue is a sham.

The Opposition has tried on Second Stage, on Committee Stage and now on Report Stage to be constructive in this debate. We wanted to debate the amendments and while I would not be in favour of the Minister of State rejecting them, that would be his say. We will not have the opportunity to discuss many of the issues that were part of the preparatory consultation process over the past two years. We wanted a debate of substance but we will not get it because the amendments that have been allowed only skirt around the edges of the issues. We will not have rights-based legislation even if the Minister of State accepts all the Opposition amendments that have not been ruled out of order.

The groups that took part in the consultative process had set their hopes high but have been let down. The National Association for Mentally Handicapped in Ireland, the co-ordinating body for more than 160 organisations providing services to approximately 26,000 people with intellectual disabilities stated this Bill, if enacted, would dilute the rights of people with disabilities and push them further into the margins of society.

The National Parents' and Siblings' Alliance offered the view that the effect of the Bill was to give legislative support to existing inequalities and that it could not take the Bill seriously unless it were drastically redrawn because, as it stood, it was aimed at excluding a large number of people from receiving assessments and the resulting services. The organisation reminded legislators that history has shown that where there is no pressure on Government to provide services for people with disabilities, they are left at the bottom of the heap. This means that when they reach adulthood, not only have people with disabilities been damaged by State neglect, the intervention required is even more costly. I agree and urge the Government to change the Bill, not to insult people with disabilities and accept this amendment and the amendments flowing from it.

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