Kathleen O'Meara (Labour)

This is someone who is well able to do her job but she was experiencing particular difficulties to do with promotion and with being regarded as an equal employee to those who were not disabled. I was able to give her some assistance.

The personal experience of people with disabilities in their efforts to be treated equally is very difficult. They have to fight for this recognition themselves. In the past decade, the representative groups have become far more vocal and demanding. They are no longer behind the door in looking for what they need and that is fair dues to them because this is how it needs to be. The experience of people with disabilities in securing and keeping employment and ensuring equal treatment when in employment is a very real and live issue for people. When discussing this legislation we should never forget the difficulties experienced by individuals in the area of employment, those who are able to work. The majority of cases with which public representatives are familiar concern people struggling with the former health boards to obtain the resources they need for their homes, seeking resources and education for children. This has been a history of struggle and effort. They must continually lobby and make demands and it has never been easy.

The Government has fallen far short even though I acknowledge this is a considerable piece of legislation. However, without the fundamental elements listed by the DLCG such as the clear and unequivocal right to an assessment of need which must not be resource dependent, it is like a car missing a vital piece of its engine which will rattle along but will not achieve what is required of it and to which I thought the Government was committed.

The previous speaker referred to Deputy Mary Wallace who was the previous Minister charged with the legislation. When the predecessor to this legislation was published there was such a furore that she lost her job. However, this legislation still fails to meet the needs of people with disabilities. I would like to know the reason the Government has so wobbled on this core and essential point. This issue will not go away.

Listening to the speakers from the Government side of the House, it seems there is a hope and probably a belief that if the Government provides the resource for people and gives them what they need, short of a right to it and if it works in practice which I hope it does, then people will see that the rights do not need to be incorporated in the Bill. I do not know if this will be the result. I predict that the right to an assessment of need which must not be resource dependent is so fundamental that the argument for it will not end. This Government will still be hearing the call for that right in the future.

One would hope the administration of our health service and of the resources which the Government has promised to put into this sector will be delivered effectively. I would like to hope that it can be delivered effectively but our experience is that it is not being delivered effectively and that there are many flaws in the system. The delivery of the service has holes in it, is not consistent and for many people it is not effective. Against that background, when the resources are not being delivered effectively, the demand for a right to an assessment of need will be heard again. This demand will not go away because it is a fundamental lack in this legislation which is to be regretted. As a result, the Labour Party will not support the Bill on Second Stage.