More Irish Disability Law Smackdown

The Irish Examiner has this editorial. Some excerpts:

The Government preparing to ram its contentious Disability Bill through the Dáil before the summer recess.

Hopes of scuppering the legislative package are now focused on convincing the opposition parties to tear up and rewrite aspects of this skewed law if they should succeed in forming a coalition administration after the next general election.

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It would be difficult to dispute claims that the bill is extremely restrictive in its present form since it will base the entitlements of disabled people purely on the availability of funding. Shamefully, the concept of rights-based legislation has been trampled upon by the coalition.

Going on past experience, there can be little confidence that official attitudes will change given the State’s persistent record of stone-walling justifiable demands made on behalf of people with mental or physical disabilities. The hard-hearted nature of this bill does not suggest they will be treated in a more caring manner by the present administration.