Introduction

As set out in the Introduction and Methodology, Ireland was selected as the primary case study for this research due to its position as an early leader in the drafting of anti-discrimination legislation for people with disabilities and the subsequent development of a comprehensive National Disability Strategy comprising legislative, policy, and programmatic elements. This chapter will examine the development of disability law and policy in Ireland following the paradigm shift from welfare to rights-based legal provision that led to the eventual agreement of the National Disability Strategy in 2004. It will attempt to discern the patterns arising in legislative and policy initiatives designed to facilitate the societal participation of people with disabilities, which can be progressed in line with the vision enshrined in the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). This assessment will begin with the report of the Commission on the Status of People with Disabilities in 1996, which put forward comprehensive proposals for reform of law and policy, and examine the extent to which the Commission’s proposals have now been implemented in subsequent legislative reform, including anti-discrimination legislation such as the Employment Equality Act 1998 and Equal Status Act 2000 (as amended in 2004) and in the National Disability Strategy.