Results 701-720 of 1,150 for speaker:Frank Fahey

Seanad: Disability Bill 2004: Committee Stage. (14 Jun 2005)

Frank Fahey: I have sympathy with the Senator's views and if I could accede to her request, I would. The difficulty lies in the fact that we cannot provide a timeframe for a number of different bodies because they operate to different conditions. If we acceded to this provision it could lead to a person being placed at the top of a queue for one type of service ahead of others waiting in a queue. The...

Seanad: Disability Bill 2004: Committee Stage. (14 Jun 2005)

Frank Fahey: Section 13 obliges the HSE to maintain records with regard to assessment and services provided under Part 2 to inform service planning. The HSE is also required to present an annual report outlining service needs timeframes within which such services would ideally be provided and the sequence of such provision. I introduced a Government amendment in the Dáil that will ensure the collection...

Seanad: Disability Bill 2004: Committee Stage. (14 Jun 2005)

Frank Fahey: In preparing the national disability strategy, the Government sought to introduce practical and effective measures to support participation by people with disabilities. This includes, but is not exclusively concerned with, the provision for rights to assessment provision, complaint appeals and enforcement, as promised in An Agreed Programme for Government. Amendment No. 1 proposes to insert a...

Seanad: Disability Bill 2004: Committee Stage. (14 Jun 2005)

Frank Fahey: The provision of access to specialist and mainstream public services is the focus of the Bill. The proposed amendments would considerably widen the scope of the Bill to the entire private sector and to private and voluntary bodies to provide services on behalf of the State, or those which are publicly funded. Essentially, the Bill is a positive action measure geared to support participation...

Seanad: Disability Bill 2004: Committee Stage. (14 Jun 2005)

Frank Fahey: Private bodies are already covered under the equality legislation by the requirement for reasonable accommodation to be provided. Part 5 of the building regulations also lays down standards which must be adhered to by the private sector. The Bill covers a wide range of companies and semi-State bodies. They include the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland, the Central Statistics Office, the...

Seanad: Disability Bill 2004: Committee Stage. (14 Jun 2005)

Frank Fahey: Any public body funded by the State is included.

Seanad: Disability Bill 2004: Committee Stage. (14 Jun 2005)

Frank Fahey: This change was sought by the Disability Legislation Consultation Group, DLCG, at its recent meeting with the Taoiseach on 25 May when the Taoiseach indicated that the matter would be reviewed. Having reviewed the matter, the Government is prepared to make the related change to the Bill. The Government sought consistency in the language used in this subsection with that in the earlier...

Seanad: Disability Bill 2004: Committee Stage. (14 Jun 2005)

Frank Fahey: This Bill provides, for the first time, that the Minister will have to outline clearly at the beginning of the year the amount of money that will be provided for disability services. I do not suggest that the Minister will be unable to make changes in that regard during the year. It is obvious that one cannot ring-fence any moneys. We had a debate on this matter in the Dáil. For the first...

Seanad: Disability Bill 2004: Committee Stage. (14 Jun 2005)

Frank Fahey: Yes. It is expected that the review will be completed within five years of the commencement of the Act. If the Government decides at that stage——

Seanad: Disability Bill 2004: Committee Stage. (14 Jun 2005)

Frank Fahey: ——that legislative changes are needed on foot of the review, it will be possible to make such changes. In such circumstances, I am sure the review would continue throughout the next phase of the legislation.

Seanad: Disability Bill 2004: Committee Stage. (14 Jun 2005)

Frank Fahey: I wish to inform the House that the definition of a "specified body" in section 5 of the Bill is being reviewed by the Office of the Chief Parliamentary Counsel. It is likely that an amendment will be required. I hope to present such an amendment on Report Stage.

Seanad: Disability Bill 2004: Committee Stage. (14 Jun 2005)

Frank Fahey: I introduced an amendment on Committee Stage in the Dáil to provide for a review of the operation of the legislation. The review, which I mentioned earlier, will take place within five years of the commencement of the Act. When I set the five-year timeframe, I decided to link the timing of the review with the end of the multi-annual investment programme in 2009. The amendment made in the...

Seanad: Disability Bill 2004: Committee Stage. (14 Jun 2005)

Frank Fahey: Will the Senator repeat what he said?

Seanad: Disability Bill 2004: Committee Stage. (14 Jun 2005)

Frank Fahey: We responded to the call for flexibility by stating in the section, "not later than five years from the commencement of the legislation". The review, therefore, could start within three years. The intention is that whenever the review commences, it will be completed within five years. Three years is a short time, given that it will take time for the legislation to bed in. Comprehensive...

Seanad: Disability Bill 2004: Committee Stage. (14 Jun 2005)

Frank Fahey: It would not because the Senator is confusing the implementation of the legislation with the provision of resources. The implementation of the legislation and its review will have no impact on the provision of resources, which will be debated annually during the Estimates and budget process. The delivery of services is a separate issue to the review of the legislation. If the legislation is...

Seanad: Disability Bill 2004: Committee Stage. (14 Jun 2005)

Frank Fahey: Senator Kett is correct in his analysis of the differing roles of the two officers. As he has stated, the assessment officer has statutory independence to identify the individual needs arising from an assessment without regard to resources. The DLCG argued forcibly that the person carrying out the assessment should be statutorily independent of the person who provides the services. On the...

Seanad: Disability Bill 2004: Committee Stage. (14 Jun 2005)

Frank Fahey: A simple answer to the question is that the assessment officer will be independent in the same way that other departmental officers, such as those in the Department of Social and Family Affairs, are statutorily independent. For example, an appeals officer in the Department of Social and Family Affairs is statutorily independent of the Department even though he or she is an employee of the...

Seanad: Disability Bill 2004: Committee Stage. (14 Jun 2005)

Frank Fahey: Yes.

Seanad: Disability Bill 2004: Committee Stage. (14 Jun 2005)

Frank Fahey: Part 2, section 7(1) defines a "health service" to mean "a service (including a personal social service) provided by or on behalf of the Executive". Amendment No. 12 proposes to expand this definition by giving examples of personal social services. Personal social services, along with health services, have been defined in the Health Act 2004 to refer to those services covered by the Act and...

Seanad: Disability Bill 2004: Committee Stage. (14 Jun 2005)

Frank Fahey: Section 7(1) specifically refers to "including personal social services" and those services are outlined in the Health Act 2004. Personal social services, such as personal assistants, home support, home help, home care assistants and so on, are provided for and consequently will have to be catered for under the Bill.