Parties urged to scrap Disability Bill

Opposition parties will be asked to sign a pledge tonight to scrap the Disability Bill if they form part of a new government following the next general election.

Leaders and representatives of the Opposition will gather at a meeting in Limerick tonight where they are expected to sign up to a four-point pledge which will include a commitment to enact rights-based legislation for access to services for disabled people.

Among those who are due to express support for the measures will be Mr Justice Feargus Flood, who chaired the Commission on the Status of People with Disabilities, which recommended rights-based legislation almost a decade ago.

Leaders of national disability groups are also due to attend.

The meeting has been organised by disability groups in the midwest, including the Limerick Parents and Friends of the Mentally Handicapped, which says the Government's Disability Bill does not guarantee rights for people with disabilities.

Opposition party leaders, including Trevor Sargent of the Green Party, Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin of Sinn Féin and Joe Higgins of the Socialist Party, are due to attend.

Senior party spokespeople from Fine Gael and the Labour Party are also expected at the meeting.

The four point pledge will include the following provisions:

Replace the Disability Bill with right-based legislation to "win back for Ireland the high moral and political ground it occupied on the issue throughout Europe and worldwide in the 1990s";

Make this commitment a key plank in any negotiations to form a government;

Ensure the legislation complies fully with the State's human-rights obligations;

Appoint a high-level taskforce, including independent international experts in human rights and disability, with the aim of recommending redrafted legislation.

The Government's Disability Bill is being debated in the Oireachtas and is due to be enacted shortly.

Disability groups say it will not provide a right of access to health or therapeutic services and will narrow the grounds upon which disabled people can go to court to seek delivery of appropriate services.