Mr. David Joyce:

I know the Chair is challenged for time so I will be brief. First, to thank you for the complementary remarks about the passport scheme. We hope it can feature in the recommendations from this committee, which will help to promote its use more broadly. I agree entirely that awareness and communication are huge issues in this regard. Earlier this year, we were asked to submit views to the Department of Social Protection on how the reasonable accommodation fund could be improved to support more disabled people in gaining access to decent work. It is interesting that an OECD report from recent years showed that despite the potential for that fund to assist businesses, only 10% of employers were aware of the fund and 70% said they had never received any advice on delivering disability services or retaining people identified as having a disability. I will not go into this as I know there is not time, but our submission made a few submissions on how that might be addressed, including the delivery of a national promotion campaign. I would be happy to share that.