Ms Teresa Leonard:

I thank the Chairman and members of the committee for the invitation to meet them this morning to discuss two items, the measures to integrate people with disabilities into the workplace and the social insurance entitlements of the self-employed. Members will have received copies of my opening statement. I am an assistant secretary with responsibility for illness and disability policy in the Department of Social Protection. My colleagues, Liam Walsh, principal officer, Eoin O'Shea, assistant principal officer, Alan Chapman, assistant principal officer disability policy, Mary Kennedy, principal officer, and Aideen Mooney, assistant principal officer PRSI policy, are here to assist me in answering any questions members may wish to raise.
I wish to stress the Department's continued commitment to providing a wide-ranging system of supports, both in the area of basic income supports and, of particular relevance here today, in the area of work-related supports for people with disabilities.The context in which we seek to carry out our work in this area has been shaped by the wider transformation of the Department arising from the merger between the old Department of Social Protection and significant elements of FÁS which took place earlier this year. Prior to the merger the role of the Department related to the structure of the various welfare payments available to people with disabilities, notably the disability allowance scheme, invalidity pension and illness benefit together with schemes such as the back-to-education allowance, which the Department operates directly. Earlier this year, the range of income support measures was extended following the introduction of the partial capacity benefit scheme, on which I will say a few words in a moment.

Our remit has been significantly widened however with the transfer of elements of FÁS services into the Department. These include the range of disability support and awareness measures, the wage subsidy scheme and the employability programme. I should mention that responsibility for training, per se, remains with the Department of Education and Skills. Each of the measures for which the Department has responsibility has an important role to play in supporting increased participation in the labour force by people with disabilities. Clearly, the challenge to improve the level of that participation is all the greater when set in the context of the wider economic difficulties we face at present, but the merger of the two organisations presents us with the opportunity to develop a more cohesive and coherent approach to meeting that challenge.

Put simply, the challenge we face is to further enhance the shift in focus from disability to ability. The introduction of the partial capacity scheme in February of this year marked a significant milestone in that process. This scheme recognises that the welfare system, which categorised people as fit to work or unfit to work, did not reflect the reality for most existing welfare customers. It provides an opportunity for people with disabilities, and assessed to have an employment capacity which is restricted when compared to the norm, to avail of employment opportunities while continuing to receive a long-term income support payment. The scheme is still in its infancy and it will take time for it to develop, but we believe that it is already starting to serve its purpose in enabling hundreds of people to enjoy the benefits, from both an income and an inclusion perspective, of being engaged in the world of work. Since the scheme was introduced in February last, just under 700 claims have been awarded.

I should mention also another important measure, the disability activation project, which we are undertaking with the support of the European Social Fund. In a process which is being managed for the Department by Pobal, we have invited bids for projects which will test models of activation which can improve access to employment for people with disabilities, young people with disabilities and people with acquired disabilities, as well as projects which demonstrate better engagement with employers. The intention is that these projects will be announced by the Minister for Social Protection later this month. The projects will continue until early 2015 across the Border, midland and west region. We are hopeful and optimistic that they will provide a valuable input into the development of more effective pathways to employment for people with disabilities in the years ahead.

A number of additional programmes, which were formerly operated by FÁS, are now operated by the Department of Social Protection. These include: the employAbility service, formerly the supported employment programme; the wage subsidy scheme; the disability support-awareness grants and schemes; and community employment. The main aims of the employAbility service are to facilitate the integration of people with disabilities into paid employment in the open labour market; to provide supports to assist with this integration; and to meet the requirements of employers. The scheme is open to people with a disability who are job ready and need the support of a coach to obtain employment in the open labour market. The service is open to people between the ages of 18 and 65 and in 2011 just under 3,000 people with disabilities were supported through this scheme.

We also operate the wage subsidy scheme, a demand-led programme to increase the numbers of people with disabilities participating in the open labour market. A disabled employee on a work subsidy scheme is subject to the same conditions of employment as other employees. The employer must pay the disabled employee the going rate for the job, at least the minimum wage. The wage subsidy scheme was placed on a permanent footing from October 2008, subject to the annual budgetary process, following the operation of a three-year pilot phase. The uptake of the wage subsidy scheme has been incrementally slow since its inception. It has taken a number of years to build it to this level of participation. Included in this budget is its predecessor programme, the employment support scheme, which was frozen to new applicants in 2005. In 2011, wage subsidy was paid in respect of 916 people.

A number of different employment supports for people with disabilities are provided for under the heading - disability support and awareness. These include the work equipment adaptation grant; the job interview-personal reader grant; the employee retention grant; the disability awareness support scheme and the discretionary fund for innovative projects. The purpose of these grants is to support unemployed people with disabilities to gain access to the open labour market by providing grants for reasonable accommodation in the private sector; to support private employers and encourage them in the employment of people with disabilities; and the funding of innovative disability projects within Department of Social Protection procurement guidelines. That is all I will say on the disability side for now and I will hand over Ms Mary Kennedy to deal with the social insurance entitlements of the self-employed.