John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

You are very welcome to this meeting of the Joint Committee of Employment Affairs and Social Protection, the Joint Committee on Education and Skills and the Joint Committee on Health. Colleagues with mobile phones are asked to turn them off or on to flight mode as they not only interfere with the meeting itself but also the recording and the broadcast of the meeting.

We are meeting today in an unusual configuration of three joint committees to discuss an issue of concern to us all, namely, the necessity to improve the supports available for people with disabilities intending to transition from education or training into employment. This arose specifically at our committee when we were looking at the issue of labour, activation and so forth and we discovered there were particular challenges for people with disabilities entering employment but also, having secured a job, retaining that job and the challenges there. It was in that context that we decided to do a module of this sort. While the witnesses today will set out some of the issues and challenges, we will subsequently meet with departmental officials to address those issues and to see if we can come up with some proposals in that regard. After this consideration, the committees might take up issues which are relevant to them and deal directly with them themselves.

I wish to specifically welcome the presence of our colleagues from the Joint Committee on Education and Skills, chaired by Deputy Fiona O'Loughlin, and the Joint Committee on Health, chaired by Deputy Michael Harty.

I would like a brief statement from my two colleagues, starting with Deputy O'Loughlin.