Mr. John Maher:

I thank the committee for the invitation to attend today on behalf of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment. The Department’s mission is to lead on sustainable economic development through the creation and maintenance of high-quality employment across all regions. We do this by championing enterprise; by ensuring a competitive business base to incentivise work, enterprise, innovation and investment; by strengthening global connections and promoting trade; by promoting fair and competitive markets and best business practice; and by ensuring safe, flexible and decent workplaces through the regulatory and enforcement work of the Department, our offices and our agencies.

The Department seeks to implement the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, UNCRPD, under each relevant article of the convention. Article 27, in particular, recognises the right of persons with disabilities to work on an equal basis with others. This includes the right to the opportunity to gain a living by work freely chosen or accepted in a labour market and a work environment that is open, inclusive and accessible to persons with disabilities.

The Employment Equality Acts come under the responsibility of the Department. The Acts place obligations on employers to take reasonable steps to accommodate the needs of employees and job applicants with disabilities. Denial of reasonable accommodation under the Acts can be a cause for action and may amount to discrimination on disability grounds. The Workplace Relations Commission, WRC, deals with all complaints of discrimination, not limited to workplace complaints, made under the Equality Acts. The most recent Central Statistics Office, CSO, data show that only 36.5% of disabled people aged 20 to 64 are in employment, compared with 72.8% of the non-disabled population. While the Department does not lead on labour market activation policy, our recently published White Paper on Enterprise recognises the importance of flexible working practices and measures to make work pay and incentivise greater labour force participation.

The Minister, Deputy Coveney, also considers increasing the numbers of people with disabilities participating in the labour market as representing a significant opportunity for employers and the enterprise sector and he made this point in a meeting of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Enterprise, Trade and Employment last week. Increasing employment opportunities for disabled persons involves tackling barriers to labour force participation and a whole-of-government response. The key frameworks for policy and action are the national disability inclusion strategy, NDIS, and the comprehensive employment strategy, CES. The Department is represented on the steering groups for both these strategies.

The National Competitiveness and Productivity Council, NCPC, is provided with research and secretariat support by the Department. The council examined the labour participation rate of persons with disabilities in its 2022 report on Ireland's competitiveness challenge. The NCPC recommended finalisation of the final action plan of the CES and combining this into one single strategy with the successor strategy of the NDIS. It also recommended that the Government continue to examine ways to improve the co-ordination of policy across Government Departments.

Enterprise routes such as self-employment and entrepreneurship are increasingly important employment options for people with disabilities. Among people with a disability who are employed, the NDA reports that 14.8% are self-employed. This is comparable to the overall entrepreneurship self-employment rate. Our enterprise agencies have several initiatives in place to help to encourage employers to employ persons with disabilities. Enterprise Ireland, EI, is focused on ensuring that its supports for entrepreneurs and enterprises are accessible to all, including people with disabilities. In 2022 EI signed a partnership agreement with Open Doors to further develop awareness campaigns and programmes that will utilise success stories of self-employed and entrepreneur role models with a variety of disabilities. The local enterprise offices are progressing a new online course in entrepreneurship for people with disabilities which will begin in September 2023. While the remit of IDA Ireland is to attract and retain foreign direct investment, it has launched a pilot programme designed to widen the talent pool and attract people from diverse backgrounds to avail of employment opportunities. Details of this pilot initiative are set out in our submission to the committee. The role of employers in closing the employment gap is of particular relevance to the work of this committee. The Department is open to collaborating with other relevant Departments and representative bodies to provide the necessary supports and information for employer bodies and employers in this regard. EI and the IDA also support the employers for change initiative.

At an organisational level, the Department has a disability consultative committee with representatives from the disability stakeholder group, DSG, and the NDA. This committee provides a focus for disability inclusion in respect of policy work, schemes and initiatives the Department undertakes. It also monitors implementation of our actions under the NDIS and the CES. The Department has a disability liaison officer who, among other things, organises work placements for people with disabilities, specifically for the willing able mentoring, WAM, project. Additionally, the Department also has access officers who work in co-ordinating assistance and guidance for persons with disabilities to access the full range of services we provide. In line with the Government's commitment to increase the percentage of employing people with a disability in the public sector to 6% by 2024, the Department currently has a level of 7%.

As part of our high-level engagement on the new national disability strategy, we look forward to working with relevant stakeholders, including this committee, to consider what further actions we and our agencies can take to increase participation in the labour market by persons with a disability.