Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 17 May 2023

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation

Employment Strategy and Impact on Disabled Persons in the Workplace: Discussion (Resumed)

Photo of David StantonDavid Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome our guests and thank them for their presentations, which were a breath of fresh air. In order to be in line with everybody else who spoke this morning, I am a very middle-aged - probably old aged at this stage - balding, grey-haired man who wears glasses for reading and has hearing aids. There are challenges when you get a bit older. To be clear and up-front from the start, I also want to state that I am on the board of the Open Doors Initiative. It is a terrific organisation that has gone from strength to strength under the leadership of Ms McDonagh and the team.

I thank the witnesses from the NCBI for their submission. There is a lot there to take in and it packed a lot into two pages. Ms McGriele said 75% of blind or visually impaired people are not active in the labour market. I agree with her when she says that this is too much untapped potential. Could she put figures on that for us? Roughly how many people are involved?

Comments

No comments

Log in or join to post a public comment.