Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

They are not the only ones. I thank Deputies Ó Murchú and O'Dowd for raising this important issue. Without wanting to stray into the industrial relations, IR, space because of the proximity between this discussion and those discussions that will take place at the IR forum, I acknowledge on the record of the Dáil the excellent work done by personal assistants, PAs. Those are not platitudes; I know from travelling around the country, from talking to students and from meeting PAs that there are people in further education today who simply would not be there and reach their full potential without the intervention of the PAs. Therefore, I hope the forum, discussion and engagement go well. I have given a commitment to meeting a delegation of PAs with the Deputy after that process and I am happy to do that.

On Deputy O'Dowd's point about employment, I want to talk about this because we are changing our approach to our new national access plan. Until now we have only measured access. Access is important and getting someone in the door is a big step forward. What happens after a student with a disability gets into college? What happens in terms of the workforce after they graduate from the college? The new national access plan, which we published in recent months, will monitor all of the journey and progression. That will shine a light on the work that needs to be done around education resulting in employment for a person with a disability.

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