Tom Chambers, Newport “Access Campaigner“@ Gerry Cowley, Ind, TD. Mulranny
Outside Leinster House on the 26th May 2005, discussing the collapse of the Disability Bill.
Approximately 3,000 people with disabilities marched from Parnell Square to the Leinster House on the 26th May, 2005,
“Asking, what do we want? Change the Bill.
What do we want? Change our lives.
What do we want? Equality.

Disability Bill – 86 TDs say YES, 500,000 people say NO
Can this be justice?
DISABILITY BILL A CRUEL DECEPTION
AND A BETRAYAL OF THE COMMITMENT
TO RIGHTS
Throughout my lifetime, perceptions of disability in Ireland have changed. Mostly, that change has been for the better. Disability in many forms was hidden away in Ireland when we were younger. People with disabilities were stigmatised, pitied, sometimes institutionalised. Certainly, disability was seen as placing a finite limit on the potential of the person.
Sometimes it was even worse than that. I remember being told that the parents of a new-born baby with Downs Syndrome were being punished because the baby had clearly been conceived outside marriage. Indeed, even terms like Downs Syndrome was not used then – the baby was called mongoloid. And how often when we were younger did we become aware of the son or daughter in a family who was never seen, because they were locked up in a psychiatric hospital as a consequence of their disability? How often did every service for people with disabilities depend entirely on charity, on our willingness to put coppers into collection boxes? How often were we able to turn a blind eye to disability simply because we had parted with those few miserable coppers?
It’s often said now that we knew how much attitudes had changed when thousands of people queued to watch events at the Special Olympics World Summer Games in Dublin. It was somehow natural to associate people with intellectual disability with words like grace, and courage, and competitiveness in a way that would have seemed impossible a generation ago.
Had people with disabilities changed in the intervening years? Had they somehow discovered a potential they had never had before? Or had the rest of us somehow come to realise that when you have a disability, you face barriers that are often impossible to surmount without help. And those barriers all too often are put there by people and institutions whose principal disability is selfishness.
Isn’t it easier to blame the person with a disability rather that tear down the barrier – to blame the size of the wheelchair rather than the narrowness of the aisle, to blame the person rather than remove the obstacle?
In truth, of course, it is people with disabilities themselves who have forced us to change our perception. The time is past when people with disabilities could be forced to be content with whatever label we choose to pin on them, whatever pigeonhole we choose to slot them in, whatever method of charity we choose to employ to help them eke out a limited and constrained life. For years now, people with disabilities have rejected what is known as the “medical model” of disability, the description that says all the disadvantages that go hand in hand with disability are caused by the disability itself.
They have been demanding instead that we accept a societal model, which ascribes that disadvantage much more to the barriers that confront people with disability. And increasingly they have been demanding one simple right, the right to be treated as equal citizens. In a republic, that’s not a lot to ask, is it?
I believe that the Disability Bill in its current form is unacceptable.
While I recognise that some effort has been made by the government, it is nevertheless clear that they have no real concept of how the flaws in this Bill will result in people with disabilities being treated as second class citizens yet again.”

Supporting the Disability Legislation Consultation Group’s (DLCG) views on the Bill, I believe that the Disability Bill should be part of a framework of measures that aims to support social inclusion and designed to advance and underpin participation by people with disabilities in everyday life. Moreover, provision should be made for the full assessment of health and educational needs so that Government can make services available to meet those needs. Access by people with disabilities to mainstream services is seen as a fundamental right. I am calling for all organisations and people with a disability who share our concerns to support me that will leave the government in no doubt that this inept Bill will not be tolerated”.
“People with disabilities are not guaranteed vital necessary services within a reasonable timeframe”.
Stressing that the Disability Bill is a critical element of the National Disability Strategy, Michael Doyle, Regional Manager, IWA, declared “ We are collecting a petition that we estimate will be signed by half a million people. We find ourselves in the ludicrous situation that 86 TDs seem to be saying YES to this Bill and 500,000 people are clearly saying NO, can this be justice?”

I sharply criticise the Government over its failure to respond positively to the broad range of opinion calling for the new disability legislation to be rights-based. The Government’s failure to respond to the many voices both inside and outside the House that called for this legislation to be rights-based rather than recourses based is another lost opportunity to define our society as one that is truly based on the principle of equality.
The new disability bill which was published in September2004, is not much different to that which was rightly rejected in 2001. The Minister can still set limits on our rights by simply decreasing the funding which is available to us. People with a short term disability have no right to a needs assessment. Why should it matter whether or not your disability is short term or long term. What matters is your ability to function has been disrupted.
The act does not clearly lay out a time frame in which the person who is applying for an assessment should have it undertaken. We could end up on a waiting list for years. Without the assessment, we would not be able to avail of services. The relevant minister can also decide when the provisions of the act come into force. There are already acts which have not been implemented in full.
Many people with disabilities have found that they cannot access a particular product or service. They have then found out that that service or product provider has a solution to the problem that they have created. Namely that they pay huge amounts of money to get a service which is often more than what is provided to a non disabled person.
Some prime examples of this are: Close caption VCR recorders which record subtitling for the deaf. Why should a person who cannot interface with technology be penalized? So that some company can make a profit from their lack of thought in the design of their product or service in the first place.

We should avoid the government pushing the provision of services for people with disabilities onto the free market as this has been a failure in England, where private nursing agencies were used to provide personal assistance to people with disabilities. This has resulted in wildly varying standards and, in some cases, was even a treat to health and safety, as the personal assistants were not properly trained.
The argument that government should allow us to purchase services from the private market place will leave us open to being controlled by the service provider. We have no taken our campaign to the streets onto our capital city and demonstrated our anger because of the lack of consideration of us as disabled people.
To me, it represents a slap in the face to all everyone with a disability, their families and advocates who were led on a 2 year merry-go-round of repeated consultations in the hope that this Government would finally live up to its responsibilities to acknowledge and deliver our rights. It refrains the disabled and their families from securing the services that should be theirs as of right.
Significantly, the Bill also fails to impose a legal duty on every public service provider to include and promote equality of people with disabilities. It is also an absolute disgrace, and it is despicable that the Minister with ultimate responsibility for implementation of the legislation, Michael McDowell, Minister for Justice, Equality didn’t even bother to turn up to take part in the debates in the Dial.
While the passage of this Bill represents an immediate setback in achieving the objective of rights-based legislation for people with disabilities , I urge everyone out there to continue to support the disability sector in their just demands to be treated with dignity and respect and above all on a basis of equality with all other citizens of the state.
Finally, there is nothing in the bill to say that it would be reviewed in a few years time. Therefore we now have to take this demonstration beyond the disability community. I believe we should build alliances with the trade unions, health care workers, and organisations who represent people with disabilities.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the TD,s who came out and gave us our support. I met with Kathy Sinnott, MEP, and following a good conversation she informed me that if we could get at least 8 (eight) good points and bring them to Strasburg in September of this year. She also said that if we could get 5 (five) people with a disability from each county and go to the city with them, there is a great possibility that a group she works with, could get it enshrined into the EU Law, then the Irish Government would have to accept it.
So at the moment, the Bill is going through the Seanad, and if it is passed there it will go to the President, Mrs. Mary McAleese. As an Irish Citizen of the Irish State, and as a disabled person I will be writing to her to refer this Bill to the Supreme Court to test its constitutionality under Article 40.3 of Bunreacht na hÉireann under which the State “guarantees in its laws to respect, and as far as practicable, by its laws to defend and vindicate the personal rights of the citizen”. The Disability community has repeatedly informed Government through the established consultation process that this Bill is totally flawed and fundamentally inadequate, without the points listed below





1. There must be a clear and unequivocal right to anassessment of need, which must not be resource-dependent2. The services identified in the assessment of need foran individual must be provided within a reasonable and agreed timeframe3 .The Bill must provide for clear protection ofdisability-specific resources4 The provisions regarding Sectoral Plans must takeaccount of the wider needs of people with disabilities. Each governmentdepartment with relevant services must provide a Sectoral Plan5 .The Bill must provide for a clear statutory duty on allgovernment departments and public bodies to include people with disabilitiesin their plans and services with appropriate monitoring and accountability
I am calling on everyone who has any feeling for the disabled to write to the President appealing to her to refer it to the Supreme Courts. “A Uachtaráin, as you can see the Government have railroaded the said Bill through both Houses of the Oireachtas, allowing little opportunity the Opposition parties to put amendments for change to the Bill“.
“A Uachtaráin, if you sign this Bill you will be going against the wishes of the 500,000 persons with disabilities in this State and their families.”
Yours sincerely,
Tom Chambers
Disability Campaigner for Co. Mayo
“The Billy Ranch”
Knocknageeha
Newport
Co. Mayo.