Dr. Aideen Hartney:

She is right that Ireland has the largest gap in disability employment in Europe. It is one of those cross-departmental issues that requires input from many different stakeholders and this is why we very much welcome the fact that employment is a designated pillar within the forthcoming strategy to try to develop this whole-of-government approach.

A variety of issues underpin the situation. Some of it is about attitudes and expectations. People with disabilities are still being led to believe, or their families are being led to expect, that they may not have employment in any meaningful way. Some of it is also about lower levels of educational attainment. These bits, though, are steadily improving, so it is about being able to put the framework of supports in place at transition points when people are preparing to transition from education into employment. There are still some systemic barriers, like variable access to career guidance and access to work placement-type programmes.

Additionally, there is the issue of what kinds of support somebody might need in the workplace. We still see a varying understanding of what is encompassed within the concept of "reasonable accommodation" by employers. The Department of Social Protection has recently reformed its supports for reasonable accommodations, but it will take time for some of these improvements to work through the system. Another gap in the system is the lack of a co-ordinated programme of supported employment. This would be for people with higher support needs and Ireland is an outlier in not having such a programme. In other EU countries, for example, this is encompassed within the public employment service. We have research through the OECD that shows some good case studies that Ireland could learn from in this regard.

Coming to the public sector targets, the Senator is correct that, from 2025, public bodies will be expected to have 6% - as a minimum - of their workforce consisting of employees with disabilities. Our most recent published report is from 2023 and shows the majority of Departments are already at the 6% level or exceeding it. There is more variability among public bodies and there is a range of things to think about here. Some of this is about awareness and some of it is about some bodies being quite small, where if one employee is lost through retirement or illness, this changes the performance in relation to this provision within the Disability Act 2005. We would say the monitoring function we perform is driving attention to this issue, albeit slowly, so public bodies are mindful of this obligation and of working to achieve it. It is very important to stress that this 6% level should always be seen as a minimum target rather than the ceiling everybody needs to get to.