Dr. Aideen Hartney:

I thank the Senator. It is a challenge that a number of public service bodies still need to achieve the minimum target. A range of factors is at play. In some cases, it is about having a workplace environment where somebody feels comfortable sharing his or her disability status. Public bodies often tell us their reason for not achieving the target is that they know they have people with disabilities working for them but those people have not shared their status in the data returns to ourselves for the annual report. That is a lot about fear of sharing status, that it might impact on promotional opportunities or how people are perceived by their colleagues. That is really about creating an inclusive workplace environment. That is part of our advice to all public service bodies that they would follow the commitments and actions set out in, for example, Our Public Service or following the Public Sector Equality in Human Rights Duty, so that those environments become more inclusive and more welcoming.

It is also about accommodations at every stage of the employment journey, whether that is at recruitment or at consideration for career progression. It is about a mindset and a culture within the organisation.

Certainly, on the reasonable accommodation side, all our research shows that the vast majority of those accommodations are very easy to implement and cost little or nothing. It is only a few of the accommodations that might require more intensive investment. It is about a willingness to engage with the employees and understand what would work for them. We did a piece of research in 2019 that looked at Labour Court decisions as to why reasonable accommodations were not granted and we found that where a finding was made against an employer, the majority of the time it was because there had not been proper consultation with the employee. As the Senator can see, those are simple mindset approaches. Our guidance and our approaches - Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission is developing a code of practice on reasonable accommodations - all should offer assistance to employer bodies in the public and private sectors to address the situation.