It is time the Government ended the pain of families of people with disabilities by introducing a disability commissioner bill, the National Parents and Siblings Alliance (NPSA) said today.
The NPSA, along with representatives from the Green Party, Fine Gael, the Socialist Workers Party and the National Association for the Mentally Handicapped of Ireland (NAMHI), called on the Government to adopt a Disability Commissioner Bill which was prepared and published by the NPSA.
Mr Greene said: "The treatment of people with disabilities, culminating in the Synnott judgment has made it clear that a legislative solution was necessary to enshrine the basic rights in law and to afford adequate legal protection and redress for those rights.
Me said the Bill is based on the concept of rights for people with disabilities, rights without conditions.
NPSA Chairman, Mr Seamus Greene, said: "When it comes to the Disability Commissioner Bill, the Government may not have experienced the excitement of its conception or the pain of its birth but it can adopt it."
At today’s launch of a country-wide NPSA postcard campaign to gain political support for the Bill and investment in services, the Government came under strong criticism for its failure to deliver on promises to address the needs of people with disabilities.
Mr Greene pointed out six areas where the Government had not delivered on its pledges including:
- disability bill within 2001 promised 12 times this year
- the Minister for Education's promise of a disabilities (education and training Bill)
- the Minister's commitment to recruit 70 psychologists
- the establishment of Department of Education group for the provision of second level education for all children with special needs
- the Government's promise of a National Council for Special Education
"Most gratuitously of all" there had been no sign of the Government’s Special Needs Education Forum which was to be convened during September 2001, said Mr Greene, adding other broken promises could be included in the list.
Added to the lack of action, the NPSA said any investment in services to date have proved inadequate to meet the needs of people with disabilities.
Mr Greene said waiting lists have not been reduced, rather 900 people with mental handicap are on waiting lists for residential services and 600 people with mental handicap are inappropriately placed in psychiatric hospitals. Hundreds are also in need of Day Care facilities.
The postcard campaign is intended to generate call from the public and political representatives to introduce the Bill and increase investment.
To ensure cross-party consensus, every member of the Dail will get up to hundred postcards each over the coming weeks. UP to 5,000 postcards have already been sent to parents around the country.
"The postcards are intended to get the message across to public representatives that "we" are serious about this," Mr Greene said.
The "we" he said represents not just the NPSA but the country who he believes supports their objectives particularly after the Synnott judgment.
Also speaking at the launch Fine Gael’s Ms Francise Fitzgerald said the Disability Commissioner Bill was the way forward.
The party would move Bill in the Dail tomorrow and it would be introducing it as a private members bill shortly which would allow the Government to take it up.
"We are putting it up to the Government to take this opportunity to support the Bill," she said.
Ms Olivia Mitchell of Fine Gael, Mr Trevor Sergant of the Green Party, a representative for Mr Joe Higgins of the Socialist Workers Party and Ms Deirdre Carroll, General Secretary of NAMHI also attended the launch to highlight their organisation’s support for the NPSA’s campaign.
There was no representative from the Government but at the announcement of the National Disability Authorities postgraduate research scholarships, the Minister for State at the Department of Justice, Ms Mary Wallace, said her Department hopes to introduce a new Disabilities Bill by Christmas and was working on the introduction of anti-discrimination legislation.
Mr Sergant said his party was keen to support the Bill and any party willing to run with it in the Dail.
Mr Green told ireland.comof the huge frustration felt by parents over the promises made without action.
"I understand it is a hugely difficult issue... but am critically of the Government for wanting to go it alone. The Disability Commissioners Bill would provide the driving force behind the process," he said.