The Government will today face strong pressure to concede demands that disabled people should be able to sue the State if not given proper services.
The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, will meet the Disability Legislation Consultation Group (DLCG), which represents more than 500 disability organisations around the State. The organisations want the Government to give disabled people the right to go to the courts if they are offered inadequate services by the State.
However, a number of Cabinet ministers, including the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, believe such a concession would open the floodgates to claims.
The Minister of State for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Mr Willie O'Dea, is to produce the Disability Bill in the autumn, once legislation dealing with education services for disabled people aged under 18 begins its Dáil passage.
The legislation would require State and private agencies to make their services available to the disabled, which would require changes to transport services and offices.
Today's meeting is regarded as highly significant by both the Government and the disability organisations in the wake of the successful Special Olympics.
"The Taoiseach must take leadership. Families have to make sacrifices in relation to supporting the needs of their disabled children and adults," said the chairwoman of the National Disability Authority, Ms Angela Kerins.
Ms Kerins, who also leads the DLCG, said the delegation would seek "to establish in unequivocal terms the Government's position on a rights-based Disabilities Bill".
Mr O'Dea said of the Special Olympics: "Certainly it gives this added impetus. There is an incentive for the Government to produce the best legislation possible. I don't see that the politics has changed but there is a renewed determination for us to get it right."
However, a number of departments, including Transport and Environment, are worried about the cost of implementing the legislation.
The Taoiseach is expected to tell the delegation that the Government is prepared to appoint independent inspectors who would have the last word on an individual's right to services.
Mr O'Dea said these would have similar powers to welfare inspectors employed by the Department of Social and Family Affairs.
The general secretary of the National Association for the Mentally Handicapped Of Ireland, Ms Deirdre Carroll, said that the success of the Special Olympics had brought the need for better services into a wider arena.
"The reception that Bertie Ahern unfortunately got at the Special Olympics should make it clear that there is a demand out there," she said.
