Disability rights campaigners have staged a small protest in Dublin city centre calling on the Government to scrap the Green Paper on Disability Reform.
Campaigners said the weekend’s referendum defeat on the Care amendment sent a message to the Government that it can no longer ignore.
Campaigners said the green paper essentially forces disabled people, especially those with motor neurone disabilities, into work.
Disabled people said the Government wanted to push through “another humiliation” that is not about reform and was more about “cutting back” key services.
“This disability green paper is consistent with the Attorney General’s advice that disabled people should not be given socio-economic rights in law,” Senator Tom Clonan said.
Mr Clonan claimed that the green paper means that socio-economic rights for disabled people would be curbed in Ireland unlike every other EU state.
“It would make us outliers and it’s a shocking document,” Mr Clonan said.
He said he hoped the Government was now paying attention to what people were saying after the weekend’s result in the referendum.
TDs including Richard Boyd Barrett, Bríd Smyth and Paul Murphy also turned out for the rally.
Mr Boyd Barrett said he has been told that “being disabled is a nightmare in this country”.
He urged the Government to engage more with anyone who has a disability, and congratulated the campaigners for sending a strong, united message that has “the Government on the run”.
