Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has given further guarantees to disability organisations to help win their support for the Disability Bill, which is due to finish its passage in the Oireachtas next week.
During talks late last month with the Disability Legislation Consultation Group (DLCG), the Taoiseach accepted that the Cabinet must double-check to make sure that all new legislation improved, or at least did not hurt, the disabled.
"The Government is willing therefore, on an administrative basis, to amend Cabinet procedures so that all legislation and policy proposals submitted to Government take account of the impact on people with disabilities," a note of the May 25th meeting between the sides says.
The change marks a concession by the Government, but it does not meet the disabled group's earlier demand that government departments should be forced by law to "disability-proof" all new legislation.
In addition, the Government appears ready to accept that an annual report should be laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas, detailing the number and type of people still left without proper services.
In addition, the Government promised to amend the Disability Bill to ensure that complaints officers could say when services for the disabled should be delivered, and not just the level of services to be offered.
Liaison officers should also be obliged to meet a disabled person, or their advocate in cases where the individual objected to the level of service proposed by the Health Service Executive.
Three organisations, the National Association of the Mentally Handicapped of Ireland (Namhi), the Forum on People with Disabilities and the National Parents and Siblings Alliance (NPSA) withdrew from the DLCG in the middle of May after an earlier unsuccessful meeting with the Taoiseach.
Minister of State for Health Frank Fahey and senior officials accompanied the Taoiseach at the May 25th meeting, while the DLCG group was led by its chairman, Angela Kerins.
He agreed "to consider positively" other proposals by the DLCG group, including one that would force the HSE to provide some services for a disabled person who has disputed the level of services offered.
Senior ministers are also to meet the group to ensure that six departments, including Health and Transport, publish three-yearly reports recording progress in disability services.
Meanwhile, the Taoiseach confirmed that episodic conditions such as epilepsy would be covered by the definition of disability within the Bill, which has been years in gestation.
However, the disability umbrella group has so far failed in its efforts to ensure that an appeals officer - who would have the final say on a file - will not be an employee of the Department of Health and Children.
Disability organisations, Ms Kerins told the Taoiseach, were coping with "a very tense atmosphere" because they were being told to trust the Government about future funding while existing services were being cut.
However, the Taoiseach, according to the agreed note of the meeting seen by The Irish Times, recognised "the fact that all services are ultimately resource-dependent".
Under the Disability Bill, all public offices will have to be open to the disabled, though public bodies will be given 10 years to make existing buildings accessible. These provisions represent a significant statutory obligation for public authorities, and he did not believe it has received sufficient attention, the note records the Taoiseach as saying.
