15/10/2026
Reforming the Disability Act 2005: A Once-in-a-Generation Opportunity to Advance Disability Rights
Dr Meredith Raley, Policy and Research Officer with Disability Federation of Ireland (DFI), outlines the key recommendations in DFI’s submission to the review of the Disability Act 2005.
The current government has committed to review the Disability Act from 2005. This represents the first opportunity in over 20 years to make major changes to this legislation. It is both necessary and timely, as the Act currently does not represent much understanding of disability, social barriers that impact participation and inclusion and the critical shift from a medical to a more rights-based approach.
The legal and policy landscape has changed considerably in the intervening years since the Disability Act 2005 was introduced. Ireland’s ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of Person with Disabilities (UN CRPD) and the publication of the National Human Rights Strategy for Disabled People 2025-2030, have strengthened the case for a rights-based view of disability in national policy.
DFI’s submission to the Department of Children, Disability and Equality sets out how the Disability Act 2005 can be reformed adopting a rights-based approach. To achieve this a major overhaul of the legislation is required with some sizeable additions, including mechanism for less adversarial approaches to the realisation of rights, such as an independent disability ombudsman but it can and should be done.
Reforming the Act could mark an important step towards implementing the UN CRPD and embedding a rights-based approach to disability across Irish legislation.
Key recommendations in DFI’s submission include, but were not limited to:
Use a definition of disability that is based in the social, rather than the medical model.
Improve enforcement, accountability and monitoring on any future provisions within the reformed Act.
It is not enough to have a right to an assessment of need; there must also be a right to services.
Extend right to services also to a right to live independently.
Improve disability inclusion, accessibility and accountability with expansion of the role of Access Officer to a full-time senior post.
Consider the 6% quota in public sector employment, in light of the most recent census showing more than 1 in 5 people in Ireland have a disability
Expand the role and resources of the Centre for Excellence in Universal Design, so that its recommendations are no longer advisory.
Make provisions for independent advocacy and improve access to realisation of rights review with the creation of a new independent Disability Ombudsman.
DFI’s submission sets out an ambitious but necessary vision for reform, with the aim of bringing the Disability Act 2005 into line with a rights-based approach to disability.
To view our full submission: https://lnkd.in/dCtpSDDU
