The Government is committed to producing a Disability Bill it believes is "better than anything else anywhere in the world", the Taoiseach has said in the Dáil in the face of criticism for the failure to publish the Bill before the local elections.
The Government is now spending well over €1 billion on services for those with disabilities, and difficulties arose in getting professional staff, Mr Ahern said as the Labour leader, Mr Pat Rabbitte, condemned the Government's approach to people with disabilities and their families.
He demanded to know why the Bill was not being published before the local elections: "Why does it keep slipping? Why has it 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. I am afraid it will not now be published until after the elections, because it will not live up to the promises the Taoiseach solemnly made in the Programme for Government."
The Labour leader highlighted RTÉ's Prime Time programme about the issue, which showed "the acute distress of some families attempting to cope with children who have intellectual disabilities". He said the families were contemplating legal action against the State because they had no right to specialist services and "most of them have considered suicide as the only way out of the dilemma in which they find themselves."
There were 1,633 people awaiting residential places, 682 looking for daycare services and 1,400 awaiting respite care. Mr Rabbitte insisted that there was an embargo on recruitment. He said: "The money is not provided in a country that can waste €52 million on a failed electronic voting experiment or €15 million for horses at Punchestown."
Mr Ahern stressed that the Government had substantially increased resources every year. There were difficulties in getting professional staff, most of whom came from abroad. There had been some problems about the embargo in this area but there were now additional resources for staff and services this year.
But Mr Rabbitte pointed to the Disability Federation, which said that "in the last two years no service provider has been able to afford new residential, educational or respite places". He asked: "Will the Bill be published before or after the election and most important is it rights-based?"
Mr Ahern, who did not say when the legislation would be published, pointed out that it "gives a right to people if the system fails them to appeal to the end position".
He said: "We should be trying to achieve assessment of need, services statements in redress, genetic testing, public service employment and try to give people the services they need, not just their legal rights. The legislation does that very well and it gives them the right to appeal."
