Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The comprehensive employment strategy for people with disabilities was launched in 2015 and it was the first proper and extensive national strategy. A very important policy agenda for supporting people with disabilities was outlined in it. The Government committed an extra €31 million to disability issues a number of weeks ago. The most up-to-date position on the WALK PEER programme is that the Minister of State with responsibility for disabilities, Deputy Finian McGrath, has met the families and individuals. He has discussed the issues with them and is working on a resolution to the issue raised by the Deputy of the ongoing support for the individuals involved in the programme.

I make a more general point, namely, that we have had a number of programmes that were time-limited, and this was one of those programmes that were very important for the individuals who were involved in them. These 14 disability activation projects were meant to finish in April 2015. Private sector funding was found to extend them for another year and that funding has now come to an end. It raises the broader point of the integration of these types of short-term projects into more mainstream funding, and that is precisely what Fergus Finlay's group - he is leading the implementation group for the employment strategy for people with disabilities - is now examining, how mainstream funding can be provided for these types of activation schemes. They will be central to the strategy. As I said with respect to the WALK PEER programme the Deputy raised, the Minister is actively involved in seeking a resolution and finding a way of ensuring the people involved can continue.

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