Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this because that is what I want to do. I want to get more people to know about it. I want more employers to take it up and I want more employees to benefit from it. The money is there. We have published a consultation, as I said, on the reasonable accommodation fund. We want more people to use it. There has been a very good response so far. If I need to make some changes to it, I will make them because I genuinely want to see more people with disabilities having the opportunity to go back to work. I want to remove those barriers and help them take up employment. Perhaps it could be part-time and maybe as their confidence grows, they can work longer if it suits them. We have the wage subsidy scheme for employers as well. I launched a consultation on that a week ago and we have already received 700 responses. People are engaged. There are good suggestions coming through and I am happy to take those on board. If the Deputy has any suggestions on how we can improve things, I am happy to hear those as well because we want to help people with disabilities get back into the workplace.

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