Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am not adding to it; I can tell the Deputy that much for nothing. However, I will say one thing. The most cost-effective way of supporting people with disabilities is to work with them to get people back into the workforce. That is one of the most important ways we can do it. One of the things the Minister did when dealing with the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) (Amendment) Act 2022 recently was to increase the commitment around the percentage of disabled people in the workforce from 3% to 6%. We are the second worst in Europe for persons with a disability participating in the workforce. There is ongoing engagement with IBEC to reduce the number of hours a person must participate in the workforce. Currently, it has to be 19.5 hours. Employers are telling us that if we could reduce it to 14 or 15 hours, more people with disabilities could be supported in the workforce.

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