The Disability Bill, 2001, was published by my Department on 21 December 2001. In August 2000, my Department wrote to a range of organisations representing people with disabilities, including the Forum for People with Disabilities, inviting their views with regard to the content or development of a Bill relating to disability.
My Department received a detailed submission from the Forum for People with Disabilities in September 2000 and since then they have been facilitated with a number of meetings with my colleague, Deputy Mary Wallace, Minister of State at the Department, and officials of the disability equality section. Since the Bill was published, my Department has received further comment from and has met with various organisations and representative groups, including the Forum for People with Disabilities.
With regard to section 47 of the Bill, the Disability Bill, 2001, does not affect existing rights which are actionable through the courts, either by people with disabilities or anyone else. People will still be able to take civil cases to enforce these rights, seek judicial review in relation to actions of any public body and, indeed, ground a case on constitutional guarantees. However, the Disability Bill does not confer any new basis for litigation.
The NDA will oversee implementation of the legislation. Enhanced powers provided for the NDA in the Bill include: power to require or undertake disability access audits to identify the extent of compliance; power to oversee implementation of disability access plans, developed to address shortcomings in terms of compliance; inspection and investigation powers which may be underpinned by court order to assure compliance with the legislation; report to the Minister, making recommendations, where appropriate, for the review of funding for any programme or service – section 15 of the National Disability Authority Act, 1999.
Most of the public bodies charged with implementation of the key provisions of the Bill come within the scope of the Ombudsman's legislation. Any person who is dissatisfied with the way a public body has provided access or any service provisions in their case, would be entitled to make a complaint to the Ombudsman.
