FIANNA Fail has promised to scrap the £10,000 cap on charitable lotteries and to provide compensation for lost revenue to those organisations that suffered as a result of the prize limit.
A press conference to introduce the party's policy document on disability in Dublin yesterday was also told the recent Supreme Court finding that the Employment Equality Bill was unconstitutional came as "one of the biggest blows to people with disability".
The conference was attended by a number of disabled people, some in wheelchairs.
The Supreme Court found three areas of the Bill dealing with discrimination in employment to be unconstitutional. According to Fianna Fail, it may be necessary to hold a constitutional referendum to ensure disabled people are protected against discrimination.
The party's spokesman on equality and law reform, Dr Jim McDaid, said that, in government, Fianna Fail would hold a referendum, if necessary, "to put the, onus on employers to facilitate people with disability". The Government had made "a number of important errors in the drafting of the Employment Equality Bill" and ensuring people with disabilities had their "reasonable needs" accommodated, he said.
Ms Mary Wallace, Fianna Fail's spokeswoman on disability and carers, who produced the policy document, said there must be a "radical change in public policy on disability and that this change must touch every arm of government".
The Civil Service jobs quota of 3 per cent for people with disabilities will be extended to the rest of the public sector; the existing percentage should apply in each individual Department and not as a collective quota across the Civil Service, she said.
"We have consistently supported the concept of supporting independent living and will establish a special fund for the provision of personal assistance services. In addition we will introduce a monitoring system to ensure the accessibility of all new buildings and will require public services to be provided in accessible locations", Ms Wallace said.
Meanwhile, the inaccessibility of public transport for disabled people must be tackled and her party will, she promised, introduce regulations on this issue. By the end of the year, a "specific framework" would be in place to clear the waiting list for day and residential care places, she added.
"We will reform the funding of respite care through simplifying application procedures and putting in place a programme for extending respite care throughout the country.