Written Answers. - Services for People with Disabilities.
Richard Bruton
Question:
372
Mr. R. Bruton
asked the
Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform
the plans, if any, he has to introduce a disabilities Act to set out the rights of access of persons with a disability to services and to impose an obligation on service providers to continually improve the accessibility of services to persons with a disability.
[19661/98]
In addressing the need for policy and legislative developments in relation to disability, it is essential that a comprehensive and sequential approach is adopted. In this regard, a key development is the recent Government decision to establish a national disability authority on a statutory basis from next year. A national disability authority establishment Bill is currently being drafted and is expected to be published in the near future.
I wish also to outline for the Deputy's information the current position as regards discrimination in both employment and non-employment areas.
In May 1997, in its judgment on the constitutional reference of the Employment Equality Act, 1996, the Supreme Court ruled that the Bill failed to strike an acceptable constitutional balance between the employment of people with a disability and the property rights of employers. As a result of this judgment clear bounds were set to the legal and political scope available to the Oireachtas in dealing with this socially important concept.
The subsequent Employment Equality Bill, 1997, was amended to state in clear terms an employer's obligations in relation to the provision of special treatment or facilities for a person with a disability. The Bill, signed into law in June of this year as the Employment Equality Act, 1998, provides that an employer must make a reasonable accommodation for an employee with a disability if that person would be capable of doing the job effectively with the assistance of special treatment or facilities, unless the provision of special treatment or facilities would give rise to cost other than a nominal cost to the employer.
In the non-employment area, the Equal Status Bill, 1997, proposed to prohibit discrimination on a range of grounds, including disability, in non-workplace areas, including the provision of goods, facilities and services. However, in June 1997, that Bill was also found by the Supreme Court to be unconstitutional.
Revised equal status legislation is now being developed on the same general lines as that found to be unconstitutional but amended to meet the Supreme Court's requirements. The revised Bill, which is being developed in accordance with legal advice, is expected to be published in late 1998 or early 1999.
On enactment of this legislative programme, and when the accompanying institutional and services provision improvements for people with disabilities are in place, it will be possible to consider the form which a Disability Bill might take.
