New legislation on equality was a licence for employers to discriminate against people with disabilities, the SIPTU National Nursing Convention was told yesterday.
Mr Fergus Finlay, who was special adviser to the former Tanaiste, Mr Spring, said the Employment Equality Bill was simply a new version of the Bill which had already been thrown out by the Supreme Court, couched in different language.
Mr Finlay, whose 24-year-old daughter, Mandy, has Down's Syndrome, described the Supreme Court decision as absurd and illogical. The Bill was struck down because it was ruled that the legislation infringed the property rights of employers who would have been expected to make changes to premises - such as widening a door for wheelchair access - to accommodate people with disabilities.
"The illogicality of that judgment astounded me," said Mr Finlay.
He said the Government had removed the offending sections from the Bill, which has gone through the Seanad. Employers could now discriminate against people with disabilities if it cost them anything more than a nominal amount to make changes.
"I regard this as a licence to discriminate against disabled people," he added.
He said the legislation enshrined in law the protection of a host of other marginalised groups, which he welcomed, but not people with disabilities.
In other countries, he said, there was the concept of a reasonable accommodation whereby the employer was not expected to make major structural changes. He said disabled people accepted it would not be reasonable to expect an employer to build an elevator in a three-floor building, but changes such as widening doors could be made relatively easily.
Adaption grants were available, and Mr Finlay said these should be made accessible to employers.
A study in the US, he said, had shown that the average cost to an employer to make changes for taking on someone with a disability was between $50 and $500. "It is an absurd situation really. For the sake of a small amount of money the Government has decided instead to write into law, to satisfy the Supreme Court, a blanket freedom for employers to discriminate."
Mr Finlay said he believed very strongly this was the last extreme issue of marginalisation in Ireland.