Finian McGrath (Dublin Bay North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy O'Dowd for his best wishes on my new portfolio.

The PEER project was one of 14 disability activation projects, DACTs, in the Border, midlands and west region that were jointly funded by the European Social Fund, ESF, and the Department of Social Protection from the end of 2012 to April 2015. The project was delivered by WALK. The objective of the DACT programme was to explore a variety of routes towards ensuring that people with disabilities were enabled to avail of progression, education and development opportunities within the world of work.

The WALK PEER project provided an early intervention customised employment support service for its participants to access employment and economic activity. The target group was young people with disabilities aged 16 to 24 years, including those with a physical disability, sensory impairment, a mental health problem, challenging behaviours, a medical condition and-or autism.

I understand that the WALK PEER project supported a total of 119 participants over the period that it was funded by the Department and the ESF. The total number of participants on the DACT programme across the 14 projects was 2,079. In terms of progression outcomes, 49 WALK PEER participants progressed to further education and 21 took up employment. Of these, 12 individuals remained in economic activity - education or employment - after 12 months.

A key criterion applied when selecting projects was that the learning from this activity should be capable, where appropriate, of being mainstreamed in the future. Therefore, it is important to note that the projects were never intended to become ongoing service delivery organisations in their own right no matter how successful the projects might have been. It was on this basis that each of the DACT projects was awarded funding with a specified end date of 30 April 2015. In the closure phase of the programme, however, it was recognised by the Department that there would be a number of people still actively participating on some of the DACT projects, so a decision was made to provide funding to seven of the projects, including WALK PEER, for a short period to the end of July 2015. This funding was provided so as to allow projects to ensure that their participants finished their involvement in a framed manner. I understand that the WALK PEER project was subsequently successful in obtaining additional funding from a private sector organisation and that this source of support will terminate in July 2016.

Given the origin and history of the project as set out, there is no provision in the Department of Social Protection's Estimates to provide further funding to this project. The Department's mainstream work supports for people with disabilities focus on supporting people in the context of jobs in an open labour market. This is the official departmental response but I will respond in more detail to the concerns raised by Deputy O'Dowd.

See this speech in context