AN inter departmental task force will be established immediately, along with a monitoring body, to introduce the recommendations of the Report of the Commission on the Status of People with Disabilities.
However, how long the 402 recommendations would take to implement and the cost could not be predicted by the Minister for Equality and Law Reform, Mr Taylor, yesterday at the publication of the report in Cork.
Mr Taylor said the monitoring group and task force would be structured on similar lines to that established following the Second Report of the Commission on the Status of Women, which has, within two years of publication, implemented 80 per cent of the recommendations.
Describing the report as historic, he said there was a range of concepts which would have to be adopted in a three phase programme. The Government had approved the inter departmental task force that would immediately draw up a list of priorities from the recommendations and decide on a time scale for their implementation.
"Up to now there has not been a one stop shop for disability issues but now the Department of Equality and Law Reform will have overall responsibility for disability policy."
Mr Taylor said he had not yet decided who would be on the monitoring group. However, as one of the strengths of the commission had been that 60 per cent of its membership were people with disabilities, he believed they should continue to play a key role.
While the report estimated the cost of putting the recommendations into force at £120 million the Minister said it was impossible to put a figure on it. The Government would consider the prioritised recommendations from the task force and provide funding from successive budgets.
"Where the disabled are concerned, things can never be the same and must never be the same again."
He said the public had an appalling lack of awareness about disability and this ignorance meant the public was also disabled. At least 10 per cent of the population had disabilities.
"What people with disabilities demand is rights, not charity. The denial of their rights for so long has caused tremendous anger and frustration and that sense of anger comes through loud and clear in this report."
Also present was the EU Social Affairs Commissioner, Mr Padraig Flynn, who said it was time to change the EU Treaty to outlaw discrimination. "I hope to see the needed changes realised, and soon."
Praising the report, he said it provided a model for how other such inquiries should be conducted.