Latest Irish Disability Law Update

See this article in the Irish Examiner, which begins:

RETIRED High Court Judge Fergus Flood last night pleaded with the Government to scrap the Disability Bill, which is due to complete all stages through the Dáil today.

Justice Flood has chaired the Commission on the Status of People with Disabilities.

Mr Justice Flood said the Government could still withdraw the bill, which he said was flawed, and replace it with one which would equalise the situation between disabled people and everybody else.

He said: “This bill fails in that, an opportunity lost.”

And see this editorial from the same paper, which begins:

THERE is now a compelling case for President Mary McAleese to refer the Government’s skewed Disability Bill to the Supreme Court so that the constitutionality of this highly unpopular piece of legislation can be submitted to the acid test.

There are strongly-held views that in its present shape it will result in a new and dangerous form of discrimination on economic grounds being written into the Constitution, effectively denying the rights of children to be treated equally.