Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank Ms Quigley for her opening statement. It goes without saying that we all share the same goal of fully implementing the UNCRPD. According to the European Disability Forum report, the average rate of employment in the EU for people with disabilities is 51% while in Ireland it is only 32.6%. This is the joint lowest figure in Europe. Full-time employment for women with a disability is only 15%, which is really worrying. How can this gap be closed, particularly when it comes to the figure for women? Considering all the problems women with disabilities encounter, I am wondering how we can close that gap.

I am not sure about the issue of people working from home. Given that many people now work from home, are there a lot of people with disabilities who work from home? I am not sure of the figures because a lot of technological assistance would be needed. I am curious where we are with that.

We are told employers are given supports to take on people with disabilities, but self-employed people do not get supports. What must be included in the new national disability strategy and comprehensive employment strategy to enable self-employment pathways for people with disabilities? This is very important. Article 27 of the UNCRPD refers to the right of people with disabilities to work. What are the gaps and what are we missing in delivering that?

There is also the issue of people with disabilities having a fear of losing their benefits. There is a high rate of early school leaving and what appears to be a lower level of educational attainment. I do not know we are going to close a lot of these gaps.