Giving disabled people a legally backed right to health and social services would cost too much money, the Department of Finance has said.
Its rejection of the proposal is included in a report, Towards Equal Citizenship, published yesterday by the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform.
The introduction of a "cost of disability payment" has also been rejected, in this case by the Department of Health and Children.
The purpose of the report is to measure the progress made in implementing the recommendations of the Commission on the Status of People with Disabilities, published three years ago.
The commission made 402 recommendations, of which 20 per cent have been implemented in full, according to the Minister of State for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Ms Mary Wallace.
Progress had been made in relation to a further 66 per cent of the recommendations, she said.
The achievements include the appointment of an Equality Authority and the setting up of an office of Director of Equality Investigations, she said.
They also include:
Funding for childcare assistants for children with disabilities in primary schools.
A commitment to amend building regulations to make new housing "visitable by people with disabilities" from next July.
All new buses purchased by Dublin Bus to be low-floor and fully accessible from January. Bus Eireann "intends" to do the same when replacing its urban fleet.
Extra funding for services for people with learning disabilities and mental handicaps.
Moves to "mainstream" disability services by giving various functions of the National Rehabilitation Board to FAS, Comhairle (formerly the National Social Service Board) and a new National Disability Authority.
"While we can be justifiably proud of what has been achieved to date, I am under no illusions about the fact that more needs to be done in improving the quality of lives of people with disabilities and their families and carers," the Minister said yesterday.
The rejection by the Department of Finance of a legal right to services will disappoint groups which have been campaigning for this for some years.
The commission recommended that every disabled person get a comprehensive "Statement of Needs" which would entitle them to services without having to argue their case again and again with numerous departments, health boards, agencies and sub-sections of such bodies.
"The Department of Finance cannot accept these recommendations which imply the underpinning by law of access to and provision of services for people with disabilities as a right.
"This right, if given a statutory basis, would be prohibitively expensive for the Exchequer and could lead to requests from other persons seeking access to health and other services without regard to the eventual cost of providing these services."
A "cost of disability payment" is another key demand by people with disabilities.
This would help recipients to cover the extra health, travel, housing and other costs which they incur.
The Department of Health and Children objected that such a payment would be costly and difficult to administer and also that other groups such as Travellers, the homeless, unemployed, old people and children could seek equality of treatment.