Frank Feighan (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister of State to the House and express my delight that the Disability Bill has come before us. We have waited a long number of years for what the Government and Opposition agree is important legislation and I am thankful for the opportunity to speak on it. We differ, however, on whether the legislation is good. While some of its provisions are positive, there are others which could be improved. The legislation is not as good as we had hoped it would be.

I received an e-mail the other day from Cork. It stated that the Taoiseach had commented on "Six-One" on RTE when launching the Disability Bill that we were setting it in law in a way in which no other country had done. This person agreed fully with the Taoiseach's statement, that we were setting it law in a way no other country had done, because no other country would put forward such callous legislation.