Agencies and organisations set up to help people with disabilities in the past have become outdated and tired, a meeting in Dublin of 500 people with disabilities was told yesterday. The meeting met to form a council to promote the interests of people in workshops attached to the Rehab Group.
But the National Representative Council will also press for change in the make-up of other agencies and organisations, its co-ordinator, Mr Paddy Doyle, said.
He added that "some people would argue that organisations serving the particular needs of people with disabilities have lost touch with them."
Representatives of the NRC are to be included on all boards in the Rehab Group, he said.
Rehab's chief executive, Mr Frank Flannery, told the audience yesterday that they were "contributing to the last great civil and human rights struggle."
The Minister of State for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Ms Mary Wallace, told the gathering she was "delighted that people with disabilities are now organising themselves."