Frank Fahey (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

Amendment No. 1 is a technical amendment and makes it clear that the definition of specified bodies relates to bodies such as the HSE and the courts which operate with their own financial Votes and where the relevant Minister does not allocate funding.

The change reflected in amendment No. 2 was sought by the DLCG at its recent meeting with the Taoiseach on 25 May. The Taoiseach indicated that the matter would be reviewed and the Government has since agreed to make the related change to the Bill. Page 9, subsection (4), line 6, states that in determining the appropriate allocation under subsections (2) and (3), the Minister or specified body shall ensure that the amount remaining after the allocation is not less than the amount that is required. The word "appropriate" is more balanced in the context of the balance achieved in this Bill. The DLCG felt that the word "required" was somewhat too strong and we accepted the amendment.

With regard to Deputy Lynch's point, services are described in section 2 of the Bill and do not include education services which are provided for in the new special education Bill.

With regard to the points made in terms of rights, I am absolutely satisfied that the provisions in this Bill give a considerable number of rights to people with disabilities but do not include a new right, namely, the right to a justiciable decision. I took on this responsibility following publication of the Bill and am satisfied that it would not be in the best interests of people with disabilities to have justiciable rights. A situation already exists in respect of health services whereby justiciable rights do not exist. They have existed in the past with regard to special education services. It is quite clear from decisions taken and the ensuing results that most of the money received in terms of justiciable rights in the courts with regard to the issue of education has gone into lawyers' pockets.

I was very interested in what I read in this morning's paper. I would particularly like members of the Labour Party and Fine Gael to confirm whether they will give a commitment to introduce legislation giving justiciable rights. It is not in the interests of people with disabilities. It is no wonder someone like Mr. Justice Flood wants to have justiciable rights. He would probably feel it is the courts that should decide the level of service to be provided for people. It is not the courts that should do this, but this House.

The legislation is innovative in that it provides for transparency for the first time, in that each Minister must outline in public at the beginning of the year the amount of money that he or she will allocate for disabilities. With the multi-annual funding of the next five years there will be no change in that departmental allocation. It is not possible to include in legislation the ring-fencing of money in any area of public expenditure. I had robust discussions with officials in the Department of Finance who were quite clear that in the interests of good governance and the proper use of public funds, we could not ring-fence funding in legislation. I assure the House, however, that the Bill provides that each Minister must outline the allocation of money he or she will devote to disabilities during the year. It would take a brave Minister to change that allocation and with multi-annual funding, there will be no need to change.

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