ties. Inclusion in the school system is often talked about, but there is a
great deal of work ahead of us so that it will benefit everyone. Everyday life is not always easy for disabled persons. For example, the Theseus Temple in the Vienna Volksgarten was expensively renovated,
but it has no disabled access. Or the grab handles in the washroom
of a police station were forgotten when it was renovated. Of course I
address these cases and demand improvements. Legislators took an
important step forward with the regulation on ID cards for persons
with impaired mobility in the Austrian Road Traffic Act. A legislative amendment made this ID card accessible for more persons with
disabilities. The Federal Social Welfare Offices will ensure a uniform
enforcement of this legislation in the future.
For me, in addition to ex-post control of public administration, the
AOB’s monitoring of legislation plays a central role. Unfortunately,
the AOB’s legislative recommendations are acted upon far too rarely.
Legislative recommendations are very
important
A tenacious perseverance is often required to achieve improvements
to legislation. The AOB’s reports clearly show that recommendations
must be repeated year after year. That is why it makes me particularly
happy that significant improvements in citizenship law appear to be
on the horizon. In the Annual Report 2011, the AOB addressed this
subject in great detail and summarised all of the suggested recommendations, some of which had been made repeatedly for years. Then
things began to stir. The political arena took up some of the items
and signalised its willingness to discuss them. Finally both politicians and the Ministry of the Interior held out the prospect of a major
amendment of the Citizenship Act that is supposed to contain almost
all of the recommendations for improvement made by the AOB. Thus,
the persistence of the AOB should soon be rewarded to the benefit of
many citizenship applicants.
27
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