Colm Keaveney (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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9. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation when the 2014 Action Plan for Jobs will be published; if it will contain measures to help persons with a disability; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2925/14]

Colm Keaveney (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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30. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the way his Department's measures were undertaken in the 2013 Action Plan for Jobs to help persons with a disability; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2926/14]

Colm Keaveney (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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The Minister will be aware that the 2013 action plan does not contain specific provisions to improve employment opportunities for people with disability.

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 9 and 30 together.

The action plan for jobs is a whole-of-Government programme which includes commitments from all Departments and a significant number of State agencies to take actions to support job creation. The aim of the action plan is to create a supportive operating environment for businesses in order to allow employment to grow across all sectors, and for people of all abilities. The plan is working.

Apart from the measures which are aimed at increasing employment across the economy as a whole, action 240 of the 2013 action plan is specifically aimed at promoting the employability of groups that have experienced labour market disadvantage, including those with disabilities. This action is being progressed by the Equality Authority, which comes under the remit of the Minister for Justice and Equality. An update on this commitment was included in the second progress report on the 2013 action plan, which is available on my Department’s website. A further update will be provided in the fourth progress report, which will be published shortly.

The Department of Social Protection also provides a range of labour market services for people with disabilities, including training and employment programmes. In more general terms, many of the schemes which have been introduced by the Government to help people progress into employment,such as the new JobsPlus scheme and the JobBridge internship programme,are open to people with disabilities.

I am currently finalising the 2014 Action Plan for Jobs for the Government’s approval and I hope it will include new actions to support the employment of people with disabilities. My Department’s officials had a very constructive meeting recently with the National Disability Authority on how actions to support the employment of people with disabilities could be integrated in this year’s plan, based on the authority’s own activities and objectives for 2014. The 2014 Action Plan for Jobs will be published shortly, following approval by the Government.

Colm Keaveney (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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I am sure the Minister is aware that only 603 young people between the age of 20 and 24 years who have intellectual disabilities are at work. People with disabilities have a right to work and to the dignity that work provides, and their exclusion from employment increases their dependency on the social welfare budget. As the lead Minister for job creation, can he give an assurance that he will include in the 2014 action plan measures to provide greater accessibility and support to people with disabilities to allow them the dignity of being active citizens by participating in employment?

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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As I indicated earlier, actions were implemented last year and we will take further action this year. Programmes are in place to help people with disabilities take advantage of employment opportunities. Many of these programmes are administered through the Department of Social Protection and, specifically, INTREO. Available supports include the employability service, training programmes and the wage subsidy scheme. We have sought to build on these programmes in the 2013 plan. One area on which we focused was technical support for equality mainstreaming for providers of further education and training and labour market programmes. Funding was approved for six equality mainstreaming projects in June 2013. The flow of work continues and we need to use the action plan for jobs as a whole of Government initiative to build on the progress made thus far.

Colm Keaveney (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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According to Inclusion Ireland's budget submission, only 21% of adults with disabilities who were capable of work were participating in the economy, compared to 50% of the general population. Given the measures introduced to date under the programme for Government, will the action plan for 2014 be more ambitious in securing opportunities for people with disabilities to participate actively in the economy?

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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I agree with the Deputy. In no area of our employment strategy are we happy that we have reached our desired destination. It must be acknowledged, however, that enterprise has created more than 58,000 job opportunities over the past 12 months, or 62,000 if one nets out the decline in the public sector. Clearly that changes the environment by creating a better arena in which people with disabilities can succeed. We are certainly not content with our current position in respect of our job targets or integrating people into opportunities, however.