Madam, - In a rambling article in your edition of November 21st, which eventually argued against rights-based legislation for disabled people, Rory O'Donnell, director of the National Economic and Social Council, did manage to make one correct statement: "The meaning of a right is always dependent on the context".
A rights-based approach to legislation in the forthcoming Disabilities Bill would repair years of medical model or charity-based responses that still survive in the context of delivery of services to disabled people in the Republic. We do not have a rights tradition in the context of appreciating disabled people beyond victims of their impairments. Other countries have a history of effective institutions and policies as supports for disabled people who want to enjoy the pleasures and vices of modern living. Ireland has no history of social rights for disabled people.
A rights-based approach could create effective policies and institutions to set and achieve high standards of service for and with us. By referring to progressive international examples of service provision, the NESC is muddying the waters by not identifying an Irish context where there is no right to services and social policy infrastructure to counter our rights-based agenda for access. - Yours, etc.,
PETER KEARNS, Social Policy Worker, Forum of People with Disabilities, Hill Street, Dublin 1.