Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 1 May 2024
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters
United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities at Local Level: Discussion (Resumed)
5:30 pm
Ms Margaret McCabe:
A number of the questions overlap so we will do a trio, if we can. When it comes to PAS, it is confusing because we have our own organisation and we recruit for everybody as well. I will talk a little about both. There was a question about the barriers to recruitment for people with disabilities to the Civil Service. There are no particular entry qualifications for a number of grades. For temporary clerical officer and clerical officer, for example, you do not need a degree or qualification. You have the opportunity. The barriers are, I hope, narrowing from that point of view. As regards locations, there are locations all around the country. We are still using Zoom to interview people. It is very popular for people with disabilities to use Zoom because it does not take them out of their comfort zones and they have the areas they like to use. I cannot answer the question on funding to help people with uniforms and things like that because that is down to the policies of individual Departments. In our offices, we have a disability liaison officer who supports anybody with a disability or anybody who needs extra help. We have very good people who deal with culture and we have our champion who works with us and with external candidates to help them. We have done a lot of work around the WAM programme and the AHEAD programme, which were mentioned in another question. In regard to interview boards for those campaigns, we work closely with the candidates to help them to get through the interviews. We have put a lot of work - Ms Lyons will talk about this - into trying to get more board members with disabilities to work with us but it is a work in progress. It is difficult. Ms Lyons will take the piece around reports.