Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Durkan for sharing time. I draw to the attention of the Minister of State the importance, in establishing this new Department, of remembering those people with intellectual disabilities and their participation in third level education. They should be given the same opportunity to participate as everybody else, which in turn can lead to full participation, where it is appropriate and wanted by somebody with an intellectual disability, in the world of work.

The Minister of State is almost certainly already aware of the excellent centre in Trinity College Dublin for people with intellectual disabilities. It may be a gold standard for that model but it is certainly something that is capable of being rolled out in other universities. It offers a two-year certificate programme for people with intellectual disabilities. They are full students of the college and have student cards like everybody else. They undergo an appropriate series of courses and preparation for work, including internships. That process is expanding. The internships are with commercial organisations, including law firms, CPL Resources, Ernst & Young and aircraft leasing companies. They offer the young person the chance to experience work and the employer is given the opportunity to work with Trinity.

The process is set up in a structured way in order to minimise concerns or questions that may arise about the supports provided to the young person coming into the organisation. It provides a pathway, as so many other apprenticeship opportunities do, for the young person with an intellectual disability to come full-time into the world of work. In many cases, the positions are translated into permanent jobs. They might be five days per week or three days per week but they are appropriate to the ability of the person concerned.

This is a model of true inclusion where somebody can have the dignity of work. People can grumble about paying tax or working on a Monday morning, and they can have a badge and lanyard like everybody else. This structured model within the university gives confidence and appropriate preparation to settling into the world of work, not just with regard to the functions to be performed in the work environment but also just being in the work environment with colleagues, having had the benefit of a university experience before that.

In recent decades we have treated people with intellectual disabilities in a truly exclusionary and tragic way. This goes back to our shameful past of institutionalising people with intellectual disabilities. There was no reason for that. I appreciate there is a spectrum and not everybody will be able to or want to participate in the sort of model I describe, but for those who do, it should be available. There should be an automatic consideration for those who are interested in, able and want to participate. There are too few avenues for people with intellectual disabilities to real participation both in the third level educational experience and in getting long-term, inclusive employment.

This will be a measure of the new Department and it will be included in its remit. As a society we must ensure that we are really including people with intellectual disabilities as a matter of course. I commend the commercial organisations that have already embraced this model. It is something that adds so much to an organisation, including its culture, and I invite others to participate in the process. I congratulate the Minister of State on his appointment but I ask him to look into this at the earliest possible opportunity to see what might be done to take this model, or one very like it, to the other universities in the country so that they can provide supports, education and really inclusive opportunities for lifelong dignity for people with intellectual disabilities in this State.

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