Kathleen O'Meara (Labour)

I think I can answer Senator Terry's question. These words do not appear elsewhere as this legislation is resource-based not rights-based. The Senator's amendment would make it rights-based legislation whereas the Government's words make it resource-based legislation.

I have been a Member of this House for nearly eight years and do not recall this particular configuration appearing before. It is not normally necessary. As Senator O'Rourke said, if one does not have the money, one cannot spend it. This Government has chosen to specifically state this in the Bill's Long Title and to define the legislation completely as resource-based, which has been the biggest bone of contention between the disability groups and the Government. As the Minister of State said, this is a fundamental point of disagreement between the Government and the Opposition parties. Do we have rights-based or resource-based legislation? As set out clearly in the Long Title, this is resource-based legislation and will, therefore, always be the case.

I welcome the Minister of State's commitment to the provision of €900 million over five years. Perhaps it will be more, which would be great as there is much catching up to do. Be that as it may and despite whatever amount of money is spent, the Bill, which creates the long overdue framework for the development of services for people with disabilities in this country, has a resource-based ethic rather than a rights-based one as its fundamental cornerstone.