Arthur Morgan (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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Question 210: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the reason there has been no progress report produced by the Commission on Status of People with Disabilities since 1999; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31628/06]

Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)
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The Commission on the Status of People with Disabilities was established in November 1993, by the Minister for Equality and Law Reform, Mervyn Taylor, T.D., under the chairmanship of Mr Justice Fergus Flood. On completion of its examination of the situation of people with disabilities, its report, "A Strategy for Equality", was presented to the Minister in November 1996 and accepted by the Government in principle in 1997.

"Towards Equal Citizenship", a special report was published in December 1999 by an Interdepartmental Task Force on the implementation of the recommendations of the Commission. It showed that two-thirds of its recommendations were either implemented or in the process of being implemented.

Subsequently, the substance of the recommendations of the Commission has been achieved by way of: establishment of the Disability Equality Unit with responsibility for overall coordination of disability policy, in my Department; establishment of the National Disability Authority; the enactment of comprehensive equality legislation, the disability provisions of which have been strengthened in the Equality Act 2004; establishment of Comhairle; establishment of People with Disabilities in Ireland Ltd as a grass-roots organisation for people with disabilities to make their voices heard in issues affecting them; and the enactment of the Disability Act 2005.

Major progress has also been achieved in the area of education, with the enactment of the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act 2004, and the establishment of the National Educational Psychological Service. Other, more specific recommendations continue to be implemented within a general framework of statutory and administrative reform, such as the recent extension of travel passes for disabled people and their carers to peak hours, or the enactment of the Criminal Law (Insanity) Act 2006, which incorporates Commission Recommendation No. 287 for the need of a public review of mental incapacity and the criminal law.

These are major changes in the legal, institutional, and policy framework which affects people with disabilities in Ireland. Not only do they implement the recommendations of the Commission, but they provide their own dynamic of change. The National Disability Strategy, launched by the Government in September 2004, represents Government policy for the necessary sectoral changes in infrastructure, access and the provision of services to ensure the participation of disabled people in society and the funding necessary to achieve those changes. The Strategy is currently being implemented across all Government Departments and the entire public sector.