LINDA O'SHEA FARREN,
Sir, - In the run-up to the abortion referendum, the Government tried to have the long-awaited Disability Bill 2001 passed into law. However, this Bill specifically denies rights to people with disabilities and yet it was being peddled by the Government at a time when the Government was passionately (according to an Taoiseach) trying to convince the public to protect the rights of the unborn. The Bill had to be withdrawn because it met with such outrage from disability organisations. Clearly the rights of the unborn are more important to the Government than the rights of the born, especially those with a disability.
On Tuesday last week, the Government published a different disability Bill - the Education of Persons with Disabilities Bill, 2002 - without any consultation with disability organisations. It is now trying to rush this through the Houses of the Oireachtas before an election is called. One glaring problem with this Bill is that its definition of a child does not include children under three years of age. So, not only are the rights of the unborn more important to the Government than the rights of the born, especially those with a disability, but once a child is born with a disability, he or she will have no automatic rights under the Education of Persons with Disabilities Bill 2002 (if passed) up to the age of three. (Whatever happened early intervention?)
This "off again, on again" approach to the rights of the unborn and the born - and in relation to rights of people with disabilities, in particular - has to be stopped. - Yours, etc.,
LINDA O'SHEA FARREN,
Raglan Road,
Ballsbridge,
Dublin 4.