The Minister of State at the Department of Justice Frank Fahy has announced a number of changes to the proposed Disability Bill, following concerns raised by the Disability Legislation Consultation Group.
Mr Fahy met with the DLCG today to outline the Government-backed amendments, resulting from the group's submission on the bill.
Mr Fahy said one of the amendments will make it a requirement to seek the views of the person being assessed about their preferences for service delivery. The Government was also prepared to amend the bill to include people with mental health impairments or childhood conditions requiring early interventions.
Other changes include the introduction of an additional ground of redress in the bill: the grounds will be "failure to commence or complete an assessment within the statutory timeframe."
Mr Fahy said the complaints system will be replaced with access to the Ombudsman. He said the Government also intends to remove the option of the CEO of the HSE or education service provider to refuse to implement a recommendation of a complaint officer.
Other amendments are a broadening of the Department of the Environment Sectoral Plan to include housing and accommodation for people with disabilities, and great co-operation between the housing authorities and the HSE in relation to these matters.
The bill will also be amended to allow a minister make specific provision for training and work experience contracts for people with disabilities.
Mr Fahy said there were 40 submissions on the Bill and he gave a commitment that the Government would review the legislation after 5 years.
Meanwhile Labour TD for Cork North Central Kathleen Lynch described the proposed changes as "minor amendments" and "shameful". She accused the Government of failing to adequately tackle the concerns of the Disability Legislation Consultative Group.
"This Government promised rights-based legislation in its Programme for Government. Apart from a limited form of assessment, which covers effectively only health needs, there are no rights in this Bill."
She said the Labour Party will fight the committee stage of this bill "every inch of the way." The party is tabling a series of wide-ranging amendments, some of which include: that the bill would contain an explicit commitment to rights in its title: the definition of disability would be much more inclusive: the bill would contain an unqualified right to an assessment and a service statement: and that all assessments would be carried out by independent people.