THE Council for the Status of People with Disabilities will be inaugurated today by the President Mrs Robinson, in a move which has been described by the council's chairman, Mr Frank Mulcahy, as an "exciting and historic moment" for people with disabilities.
The council will be a permanent official body representing and promoting the interests of people with disabilities. The majority of its members will be people with disabilities.
The council has been allocated £300,000 in funding for its first year. Its aim will be to press for the implementation of more than 400 recommendations included in the report of the Commission on the Status of People with Disabilities, presented to the Minister for Equality and Law Reform, Mr Taylor, in December.
"We will be making disability a political issue," said Mr Mulcahy, who is himself a wheelchair user. "We will lobby to make sure that disabled people are never again denied their rights."
The top priority of the new council will be to press for the establishment of a National Disability Authority, also recommended by the Commission last year.
The authority would have the power to examine whether services aimed at people with disabilities are as effective as they should be, said Mr Mulcahy.