Dr. Aideen Hartney:

I will answer the question on the public sector targets and then I will hand over to my colleague, Ms Wilkinson, on the other questions the Deputy raised. The minimum target as currently described in the legislation is 3%. As I mentioned in my opening remarks, across the entire public sector the average is 3.1%, as of 2020. There are individual Departments and public bodies that are considerably exceeding this target, and some of them are already exceeding the revised 6% target. That target can only be achieved through a mix of recruitment and also developing inclusive and diverse work places where employees feel comfortable sharing their disability status, many of whom might not have felt comfortable doing so to date. It will be a mix of ways in which the 6% target can be achieved. It is to be achieved by 2024, which is only two and a half years away at this stage. While there may understandably be a feeling that it is not ambitious enough, at the same time we do not want to create targets that are so daunting that people feel that they might not have any hope of reaching them.

Another way of looking at it is to look at the other statistic I mentioned in the opening remarks, that 15,000 more people with disabilities need to be in the workforce in Ireland by 2024 if we are to achieve an overall employment rate of 38% of people with disabilities in employment. That breakdown incorporates 7,500 people in the public sector. The public sector would do half of the heavy lifting on achieving that target. That is probably even more than would be fair for the public sector in terms of its overall share of the Irish workforce. The legislation also provides for these targets to be revised, reviewed and reset by the Minister at intervals. We would advise that they are regularly reviewed in line with the labour market conditions applying at the time. I will now hand over to Ms Wilkinson.