The Belfast Conference

The event was a great success and an excellent start to our six Disability Champions events. As well as our delegation representatives from the RNID, Blind Centre for Northern Ireland, Action for Mental Health and a local group working with people with learning difficulties attendended.

Speakers at the conference, chaired by Dermot Gallagher, were Kevin McAdam, Amicus regional officer, Max O'Brien Chair of NIC/ICTU Disability Committee, Gail Cartmail and Dave Parr. Kevin spoke about the Amicus-MSF campaign for equality in the workplace and the nine commitments under section 75 of the Belfast Agreement. He stressed that disability crosses all of the other eight areas and as such is an issue for everyone.

In his address Max O'Brian focused on the trade union role in promoting equality in Northern Ireland and the Republic and what the European Year for Disabled People meant from a Northern Irish perspective.

Gail Cartmail gave an introduction to the project and talked about our need to work in partnership with other disability organisations. She highlighted a recently published report from Scope, the cerebral palsy charity, entitled Ready, Willing and Disabled. This report includes some disturbing results from research carried out showing just how difficult it is for disabled people to get jobs, despite the Disability Discrimination Act.

Overcoming the aftermath of his first taste of Irish hospitality Dave Parr gave a presentation about the project and demonstrated the interactive web site.

Action points from this conference

• Training for Disability Champions in Northern Ireland and the Republic must specifically address the different legislation and not that of Great Britain.
• There is little research specific to disability and employment issues in Ireland; there is an opportunity to seek additional funding via sponsorship and commission this.
• The representative from the Blind Centre for Northern Ireland asked that the Bobby Approved version of the web site be changed to Arial font from Times New Roman