Unfortunately the provisions of the Treaty in relation to REAL rights of any sort are meaningless. Unless or until clearly specified rights for people with disability are made legally enforceable – eg the automatic right to a timely assessment of needs with resources to follow the needs identified – the rest is pure guff. As it stands the law in Ireland, eg, is completely fenced in by the principles of ‘ministerial discretion’ and ‘available resources’ both of which are used to severely restrict services for people with disability. The legislation which lays this down is impressivley larded with the word ‘rights’ and is full of grand, encouraging claims but NOWHERE ever grants a single enforceable right, nevertheless. This is quite deliberate and there is nothing anyone can do about it. Increasingly challenges are made by parents to secure services for chilren, eg, under the provisions of the constitution but that avenue too is in danger of being closed off, ironically under the guise of amending the constitution behind a claim to enhance childrens’ rights! This is all in line with UN/EU policy by the way. The EU is as wary of the disability lobby as the Irish government is and spouts just as much bullshit about it. All it sees is a cost which has to be contained as much as possible.

The ugly truth about official attitudes to disability is that people are viewed through their ability to contribute economically. Generally speaking the greatest expenditure is on those who are more likely to be able to work, and the classification of people into intellectual, physical and sensory disability groups (though of course there can be overlap)reflects this thinking. I know of no plan or policy of any sort to introduce euthanasia as a solution to disability. I do know however of indifference, neglect and abuse on a scale that is practically tantamount to euthanasia – not just in Ireland but throughout the EU. The Lisbon Treaty will do nothing for the disability lobby and it is not intended that it should.