Student highlights rights of disabled

Ireland acquired a second, but unofficial, EU commissioner for the day yesterday when Stephen Stokes of Co Offaly was allowed to shadow the movements of our Number One Commissioner, Padraig Flynn.

The "Commissioner for a Day" project was an attempt to give a platform to the rights of people with disabilites and will result in a meeting of an alternative commission on December 2nd to bring together the experiences of the 15 participants from around the EU. Stokes is a 22-year-old autistic student from Tullamore doing a media course in Ballyfermot Senior College, Dublin. He is single-minded about his future, making no bones about his journalistic ambitions: "I want to be a political correspondent. That's my real interest."

Pity then that the only part of Flynn's day that Stokes was not able to attend yesterday was the lunch with the new President of the Economic and Social Committee, a certain Mrs Beatrice Machiavelli, a descendant of the great man, no less. Who was teaching who is a matter of conjecture.

"Commissioner for a Day" was the brainchild of the EU's Disability Forum, which brings together NGOs working in the field, and Stokes was nominated by the Irish Council of People with Disabilities, of which he has been a board member. He pays tribute to the role of the organisation in empowering people like himself, recalling approvingly Mervyn Taylor's departing claim as minister that it was his finest achievement.

For him the trip is about finding a high profile way of demonstrating the ability and willingness of those with disabilities to speak for themselves.

He rejects the idea that the day is a gimmick. It's both an opportunity for a young person to learn about how Europe works and speak to someone at the highest level. "There is a real concern," he argues," that young people are becoming alienated from Europe."

What does he see the alternative commission coming up with as key themes? Crucially, he says, third-level education should be seen as a right for all those with disabilities who want it.

He is deeply concerned about wheelchair access and critical of an organisation for the disabled which he says recently refused a job to a wheelchair-bound woman on the grounds that she would affect their insurance.

Much more help is also needed, he says, for elderly carers both in terms of extra accommodation and respite breaks.

"We're told by all the economists that we're living in a Celtic Tiger economy. So there should be enough for the 1 per cent of people with disabilities who need special accommodation, he insists.

On access to the workforce his message is the same as Flynn's. The disability issue should not be ghettoised but is a crucial equality one. Disabled people should not be hidden away but seen rather an asset to society being wasted.

Flynn's remit as commissioner includes the very limited EU competence for the rights of those with disabilities. He hopes to expand the Commission's role when the Amsterdam Treaty's discrimination clause comes into effect with a new legislative instrument to give the clause teeth. More funding should also be available next year for NGOs.

In the context of the Union employment guidelines, agreed last year and expected to be strengthened in Vienna next month, he has been pressing to have the issue dealt with as part of the training commitment to improving employability of all those currently excluded from the workforce.

He is confident that the guidelines emerging from Vienna will reflect a commitment by member-states to come up with extra cash.