Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for presenting to the committee. As we know, the employment rate for people with disabilities in Ireland is extremely low. It is only about half that of the general population. From listening to people who contact my office or talking to people in the disabled persons' organisations, one of the biggest problems is the attitude of employers. They tend to see the disability rather than the ability of the person. How do we make employers more aware of their obligations under the employment equality Acts and the UNCRPD?

A person I know with an intellectual disability qualified as a nurse and she went to work but she was failed in her probation year, which prevented her pursuing her career because she was not given the understanding and support she needed. She told me that she could do everything any other person could do but it just took her longer. She was not treated with any empathy or support, which worries me for the people in the profession. I thought she had a lot more empathy than the people who were employing her. It did not destroy her confidence, but it knocked her confidence big time. What can be done to stop that happening and to put in supports?

Many of the witnesses have talked about reasonable accommodation. I was a teacher before I entered politics and if a child in primary school was assessed as needing a particular type of assistive technology, the technology followed him or her into secondary school. It was attached to the child rather than the school. A lot of witnesses made the point that the employer provides supports but the supports do not follow the employee if he or she moves on to a different employment. Could that be easily addressed?

I also want to ask the witnesses from the NDA about the employee targets for the public sector, which are to increase to 6%. Is that ambitious enough? Should it not be higher than that?

Another of the barriers the witnesses referred to regarding people taking up employment was that disabled people are fearful of losing their benefits such as free travel and the medical card. For those who want to enter self-employment, anyone who has an idea to set up a business should have tailored supports to help them do that. What happens is that the back-to-work supports have a timescale and everyone is supposed to fit into that. However, a disabled person or someone who suffers from chronic pain may take longer to get a business established, so they need supports to continue, but because that is not available to them they have to give up on the idea. That is very unfair.