Ms Michelle Quinn:

In response to Senator Wall's query, we see that late diagnosis occurs. There is also a changing workforce demographic in that people are working for longer and longer. Obviously, as they get older, the possibility of acquiring a disability grows. That raises issues for the trade union movement and for our membership. There is a real fear factor in respect of people who experience disability in the workforce to declare the fact they have a disability. That is why the reasonable accommodation passport is so helpful in bridging that gap, in some ways. It is very difficult. If people are fearful that declaring their disability may have a negative consequence on their employment or career progression, the fewer people they will have to share their experiences with in order to make it easier. It must be incredibly difficult to keep having the same conversation over and over again as someone's line manager changes. There are real fears around career progression. Mr. Brabazon touched on the issue of people reaching a glass ceiling and, for various reasons, not being able to go beyond that. Those concerns have been reflected back to me from our membership. Use of the reasonable accommodation passport and other initiatives encourages people to feel safe in declaring they have a disability. Looking for reasonable accommodation to meet their needs is so important.

There is also a corresponding fear factor in the general public. They may not have known anybody in their family circle or among their friends who have experienced a disability. That has changed in recent years because, as I said, the workforce is working for longer and the demographic is changing. It is quite likely that in the fullness of time we will all experience some knowledge of people with a disability, including family members etc., who had no prior issues but whose circumstances then change. I actively encourage as much publicity as possible on the existence of the reasonable accommodation passport because it is a valuable tool. We will continue to work with IBEC and other stakeholders to ensure that our membership know of its existence and that the wider public are also knowledgeable regarding it.