Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The witnesses are all very welcome. They are here to talk to us about a topic to which the State needs to find a much more impactful way of responding than we have managed to date. I was the Minister for enterprise until relatively recently. In the build-up to last year's budget, we had a number of meetings with the Department of Social Protection and the Department of equality to discuss how we could try to change the pretty awful performance in Ireland in terms of finding a way to support people with a disability and help them into the workforce, if that is where they want to be. There are many interesting pilot projects around the country, many of which are driven by fantastic organisations, some of which I know very well. The more general policy and leadership, however, must come from the State and its infrastructure.

I am interested to get the views of the representatives on how they perceive the new work and access supports. A big effort has been made by the Department of Social Protection to change and adapt the level of support and the areas it targets with support, including for self-employed people, in terms of qualification, as well as to change the thresholds and amount of money available to help adapt the workplace, get specialist support to help people and hire specialist support or staff on an annual basis. There is a significant amount grant aid now available for that.

I agree that this is not just about money. It is also about attitudes and embedded perceptions people have that need to change, including in the area of education. I am glad the witnesses raised the education issue. There is a need to ensure we raise the expectation and opportunity for people who have a disability, and not just at primary and secondary school levels. We must help build confidence in people to do so. We must also do this in the area of further education, where there are several projects with which I am sure the representatives will be familiar. Young adults with a disability are training under programmes that need to be adapted to suit their approach to learning or the way they learn. Many courses, such as FETAC levels 3 or 4 courses and qualifications, are not being adapted in the way that is required to accommodate a different way or pace of learning. There is a need for an open mind in that area.

To be fair to the Departments that are looking at this area, however, there is now a genuine attempt to improve supports and services. Many people have been deeply frustrated by barriers to entering the workforce. I do not think budgets and money are the barrier. I am a little frustrated to hear the representatives say that people with a disability have not been consulted enough. If they are saying that, then clearly it is true and we need to respond to it. Obviously, there will be an opportunity in next week's budget for the Government to allocate more resources to this area.

If we look at employment in Ireland, on virtually every metric we are in the top five or ten countries in the world in terms of income levels, social welfare supports and training. We then have this reality that when it comes to people with disabilities we are nowhere near the top. In fact, we are at the bottom. The Government is very conscious of that. It clearly needs to consult more with organisations such as those present to make sure that when we target additional resources, we target them in the right place. We also need to change attitudes within families and across society more generally. We must demand a changing workplace that is much friendlier to people who have a disability, who want to work and can make a very significant contribution more broadly to the economy by being part of the workforce, as many are already doing.

This is a useful opportunity for us to hear what the representatives have to say in order that we can try to respond both next week and beyond. As I say, one of the challenges here is that a number of different Departments are responsible in this area. The Department of enterprise has a responsibility, as do the Departments of Social Protection, community, equality and Education. In my experience, one of the challenges in politics is that when an issue spans three, four or five Departments, things often get missed because of the siloed way in which State organisations and Government respond. That is clearly something we have to change. I thank the representatives for taking the time to be with us. I hope we will learn something from it.