Erin McGreehan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The witnesses are welcome. Of all the topics we discuss at the Joint Committee on Disability Matters, employment is the one that gets me the most because it crosses everything. It is about valuing yourself. As someone who was out of work and looking for a job for a long time, I know it gets you down and makes you feel you are not there and not at the races. To use the word they use now, it triggers me. It is important that we work hard to listen and learn as much as possible.

So much has been covered this morning. What are the witnesses' thoughts on moving disability payments from the Department of Social Protection to the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment when you are working? What do they think about a cost of disability payment to enable people to go out to work? We know there is a higher cost of going to work for those with a disability.

My next comments are addressed to Mr. Flanagan. There are fantastic programmes throughout the country. I have a major problem with the fact it is personality-led. Mr. Flanagan is leading it in his area. There is no streamlined focus nationally. Mr. Porter did well and is lucky he went to Bantry. In other areas there is not so much because it is personality. Mr. Porter worked and got the bus service but there is a lack of streamlining. It is confusing. There are EmployAbility, Intreo and the witnesses' organisations. Where does one go? There is a need for possibly the NDA to look at this so, for someone who needs help and asks where they go, it is not boxed off in loads of different areas.

Mr. McGrath mentioned the gender-specific funding and the ongoing review on disability. Is that review looking at specific funding for positively discriminating towards people with disability in apprenticeships. In the SOLAS report, there are funds for students with disabilities of nearly €400,000. What is that fund? Is it supports, assistive technology or grant aid?

Probably because of the confusion and lack of streamlining, there are huge barriers to people entering education and training. I have a situation in which a young woman is battling with the HSE for funding and supports to get into a training course. Therein lies another problem. She has the training course. If we had a streamlined system, a person with disabilities who needs to get to point A would not have to beg the HSE for something and make a business case. Maybe that is a question for the NDA as well. We are looking at personality all the time, who you meet along the way someone and if you have someone who is conscious of the needs of someone with disabilities.

I ask representatives from the NDA if there is a breakdown of the type of disabilities across the public sector. Is there any accountability or has the NDA looked at making people accountable where they fail to make reasonable accommodations in the public sector? I have seen many cases where people are not getting reasonable accommodations in our public sector and Civil Service. They are afraid to go to their trade unions or management because there will be prejudice against them. They have nowhere to go. Is there something the authority has looked at to make the public sector accountable and not allow prejudice towards people who try to make the sector accountable?