Alan Dillon (Mayo, Fine Gael)

I thank the Deputy for his question. It is a priority for the Government to narrow the employment gap to which the Deputy refers. Working to enable people with disabilities to pursue freely chosen employment is an important personal priority for me.

The forthcoming national disability strategy will include employment as an important consideration as one of its five key pillars. The national disability strategy is intended as a whole-of-government framework for the implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in Ireland. It is intended to publish this strategy in the coming months. It will contain a number of actions from my Department, including engagement with employers and employer bodies to raise awareness and to foster positive attitudes towards the employment of people with disabilities, which the Minister, Deputy Burke, has mentioned in the House previously.

After the strategy has been published, the Department will establish a new Minister-led forum that will provide a platform for a more structured consultation and engagement with employers on the employment of people with a disability. It is intended to be a subgroup of the Department's enterprise forum and will serve as a means of advancing that employment by discussing employer concerns and potential obstacles. The forum will also showcase best practice examples from both private and commercial semi-State companies. It is my hope that these dialogue processes will enable a better understanding of the range of supports available to employers and of employers' legal obligations to provide reasonable accommodations to workers and job candidates with disabilities. The specific commitments from my Department will be set out in the strategy once it is finalised and approved by Government.

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