The new improved Disability Bill to be published next year will have some of the "most advanced legislation for people with disabilities anywhere", the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, said yesterday.
The Bill, which will replace an earlier controversial Bill that had to be withdrawn, will be "modern, innovative and radical", Mr McDowell said.
The withdrawn legislation was criticised because it did not give a right to an independent needs assessment for disabled people, and had ruled out any recourse to the courts in cases of appeal.
Mr McDowell said the new Bill was an improvement on both situations. An independent process would be put in place so that assessments would not be influenced by the cost of the services involved.
The State would be asked to provide for the needs identified. If a person was not happy with the provision of the service, then an appeal could be made to an independent appeals officer.
If that decision was not implemented, then the appeals officer or the individual concerned could go to court to have the order enforced, the Minister for Justice said.
Allowing a direct route to court without the appeals process would have meant that "a massive amount of resources set aside for disability would be dissipated on legal costs", Mr McDowell said.
"It [the Bill\] may not please everybody, but I will be delighted to compare and contrast it with the system in any other country, however rich, powerful or socially advanced."
The Minister was speaking at a Dublin conference on youth and disability, organised by People with Disabilities in Ireland (PwDI).
Mr Michael Ringrose, chief executive of PwDI, said Mr McDowell's remarks seemed to address most of the core values put together by the disability legislation consultation group, which advised the Government on the new Bill.
However, another speaker, Mr Brian Aylward of the Tipperary network of PwDI, said the "devil was in the detail", and the Bill could not be judged until all the facts were known.
Opening the conference, the President, Mrs McAleese, said Ireland and Europe would only flourish "when we can say that opportunity embraces every person regardless of class, or creed or gender or their disability".
People with disabilities had been stretched and tested to a profound degree and so had acquired an enormous level of wisdom and experience, she said.
"No country, no society, no community can afford to sideline or to inhibit such a marvellous talent base, such an extraordinary base of experience and of wisdom, such a reservoir of endurance."
Ms Jane McDermott (20), who uses a wheelchair, told the conference that schools must be made aware of the needs of students with disabilities. Access was a huge issue for people with disabilities and young people did not like asking for help to get into a library, shop, restaurant or nightclub.
She said she had great difficulty in getting a summer job because of her disability.
Other young speakers mentioned the difficulty presented by air and train travel. Mr Alan Duffy, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia when he was 15, asked that people recognise the disease and not be so quick to judge others.
