Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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I absolutely agree with everything Deputy Murnane O'Connor has said on the issue of employment. Just before Christmas I had the opportunity to visit some young people attending a day service in Mulhuddart who are all in their late teens and early 20s. They gave me a presentation on their key desires and the key issue was employment. A number of them have jobs for one or two days a week and the others are extremely jealous of this fact. They see it as giving a real sense of status. They spoke about the barriers with regard to submitting CVs and interviews. This is why we have the comprehensive employment strategy that will run until the end of 2025. The Minister of State Deputy Rabbitte and I met its chair last year. Subsequently I met the Minister Deputy Humphreys and I will have another meeting with her in the new year specifically on supporting employment for persons with disabilities. It is something that is very important to us.

The Deputy is right that our unemployment rate among persons with disabilities is far too high. As we set out earlier, one step the Government is taking is to require the public service to hire more persons with disabilities. The requirement in the public service at present is 3%. By the end of 2025 this will double to 6%. The total at present is 3.6%. This will take work by public authorities and everyone will have to make a sustained effort.

In terms of children's disability services, which has been a key theme of our discussion today, once the transfer takes place I will work with the HSE on the publication of a road map for progressing disability services. This will set out how we will address the very real issues that are taking place with regard to progressing disability services throughout the country, particularly the challenges the community disability network teams are facing. One of these central challenges is retention and recruitment. We will be introducing measures, some of which will be short term. As Deputy Murnane O'Connor knows, the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte fought hard to get many therapies added to the critical skills list and this is a positive point.

There will not be a quick solution but there is a range of solutions we can put in place so we can continue to reduce the number of gaps on the community disability network teams throughout the country and reduce the waiting times that children and young people face. This is a big job of work and will take time but it is a core commitment. Just like Deputy Murnane O'Connor I meet many parents and young people who are impacted by the failure to get an assessment or, after an assessment is received, the failure to receive therapies or the necessary quantum of therapies. This is a major issue.