The Finnish Parliament’s Health and Safety Committee was up in arms as opposition members boycotted a meeting after it was announced that the Finnish government intended to delay the implementation of the long-awaited Disability Services Act.
On Wednesday, parliament’s Social and Health Committee was at the centre of a major uproar by the left-wing opposition parties, which organised a surprise press conference in which they sharply criticised the right-wing and far-right governing parties.
The dispute concerns the so-called “Disability Services Act”, which was due to come into force at the beginning of October. This law aims to improve the quality of life of people with disabilities by giving them access to the services and support they need.
It was passed in 2022 and was supposed to come into force on 1 October 2023, but the Finnish government is now delaying its implementation to a year and three months.
However, the new Disability Services Act would have improved access to personal assistance for disabled people, Kirsta Kiuru, a Social Democrat MP and chairwoman of the Social Security Committee, said.
“In 2018, Finland has been criticised for human rights violations. This law would have prevented this human rights violation from continuing”, Kiuru said at the press conference.
“It would have ensured that the rights of disabled people to personal assistance would have been better realised”, she said, adding that the law would have prevented the continuation of these human rights violations.
In their press release, the opposition members also heavily criticised the government, accusing Prime Minister Petteri Orpo’s ruling right-wing coalition of “unprecedented and contrary to the principles of parliamentarianism”.
“This is a historic law on services for the disabled. We, the opposition representatives of the Health and Safety Committee, wanted to hold a press conference because this procedure was not considered appropriate”, said Social Democratic MP Ilmari Nurminen.
At the heart of the dispute is the opposition’s feeling that the matter has been handled with undue haste, that they were not heard, and had to act with insufficient information.
The opposition members would also have liked to know whether some parts of the law could be separated to come into force earlier. This would particularly affect children’s rights.
But Committee vice-chair Mia Laiho, a coalition member, is puzzled by the opposition’s criticism.
“The work of the committee went exactly as it should. Yes, normal parliamentary working methods have been followed here, and I wouldn’t worry about that at all,” he told Finnish media.
(Charles Szumski | Euractiv.com)
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