Access to an independent statutory tribunal will be a central part of the new Disability Bill to be published before the Dáil resumes on September 29th, writes Carol Coulter, Legal Affairs Correspondent
The Government believes this will satisfy the demands of disability campaigners for a rights-based Disability Bill, The Irish Times has learned
The Bill will contain a three-pronged approach to the tangled issue of guaranteeing rights and resources for people with disabilities, Minister of State, Mr Willie O'Dea, said yesterday.
The Bill will advance a series of steps a person with a disability can take to ensure that his or her needs are met.
This will start with an independent assessment of needs, carried out independently of the service-provider.
The provider (normally a section of a Government Department) will then issue the person with a statement of needs, which will be the basis on which his or her needs will be met.
If the person is not satisfied with the statement of needs, he can go to a complaints officer. If he is not satisfied with the decision of the complaints officer, he will than have access to a statutory tribunal which will hear the complaint. The tribunal will be statutory obliged to be independent of the provider.
The person will not be legally represented before the independent tribunal under the new Bill, but will have the services of a specially-trained advocate. These advocates, employed by the Department of Social Welfare, will be provided for in a separate Comhairle Bill, to be published shortly.
Mr O'Dea said yesterday he was sure this mechanism will satisfy the provisions in the European Convention on Human Rights, and the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights, requiring that a person have access to an independent appeals procedure in decisions involving him or her.
If the decision of the officer of the independent appeals tribunal is not carried out, either he or the person who made the appeal can apply to the Circuit Court for an enforcement notice, under the proposed Bill.
The Bill will also provide for the ring-fencing of multi-annual funding, the amount yet to be decided, for the implementation of these proposals. This funding will be in addition to existing funding, according to the Minister.
He said that there will also be supplementary legislation ring-fencing all funding intended for services to people with disabilities. He acknowledged that in the past funding intended for these services had "leaked" into other Department spending to meet immediate demands.
Each Government Department involved in providing services for people with disabilities will also be required to produce a sectoral plan, to be published along with the Bill. The Departments involved are Education, Health, Environment, Transport and Enterprise and Employment. They will be discussed with those representing people with disabilities, and finalised over the next year.
The issue of legally enforceable rights has been at the centre of the campaign of representatives of people with disabilities, and has delayed the publication of the long-awaited Bill. A previous Bill was withdrawn by the last Government when disability campaigners rejected it because it had no guarantee of legally-enforceable rights to necessary facilities.
The Government has resisted writing a right of recourse to the courts into the Disability Bill because of fears of the costs implications. It also does not want to allow the courts decide on levels of State provision for one sector of the population.