Multi-annual funding for the forthcoming Disability Bill has been agreed by Cabinet. The Bill will be published in mid-September, The Irish Times has learned.
The Minister of State for Justice, Mr Willie O'Dea, confirmed he had got agreement at Cabinet for "ring-fenced" funding for the long-awaited legislation.
Costings were being worked out by the Department of Finance.
Mr O'Dea said yesterday: "At the end of May the Cabinet accepted there was little point in publishing the Bill if there was not money to implement it.
"There was some resistance from the Department of Finance, but I would not have secured this if there was not a lot of support around the Cabinet table, including and especially from the Taoiseach."
Department of Finance officials were "going through each item, working out how much it is going to cost".
Declining to put a figure on how much money would be put into implementation, he said it would be "very expensive" given that legislation would include the right to an assessment of need for every person with a disability, and the recruitment of a large number of specialist staff to implement at ground level.
"The Department of Finance people will liaise with me and I'll liaise with my officials," said Mr O'Dea.
Asked when officials would deliver their calculations to him, he said: "Well, pretty shortly. We have a tentative publication date [for the Bill] for mid-September."
He had met the National Disability Authority "the other day" and had "given them a firm commitment we will have a Bill to publish before the Dáil comes back on September 29th".
He said funding would be multi-annual, that being the "most sensible" mechanism.
The Government has faced sustained criticism over delays in publishing the Disability Bill.
More than two years have passed since it withdrew its last Disability Bill, in some confusion, as a result of intense public and political anger.
Castigating the Government in May for continued delays in publication of the Bill, the Labour leader, Mr Pat Rabbitte, said it had "been promised virtually every month since the election and in the Agreed Programme for Government".
"The last commitment was that it would be published before Christmas," he said.
He predicted it would not be published until after the June elections because it would "not live up to the promises the Taoiseach solemnly made in the Programme for Government".
However, Mr O'Dea said yesterday delays had been caused by changes to the proposed Bill sought by the Disability Legislation Consultation Group and funding discussions.
