Sheila Terry (Fine Gael)

As for what is termed "reasonable measures", these will fall very short of what is absolutely necessary. The wording here is extremely weak.

Again, in section 47, subsections (2) and (3), it is down to the Minister for Finance and various other Ministers to give their consent as to whether or not they should specify compliance targets relating to the recruitment and employment of persons with disabilities. These need to be set down.

I also do not like quotas but, unfortunately, that is the way we have to address this issue. if the 3% quota was not set down years ago, there would probably be far fewer people with disabilities working today. However, where we are starting from a very low base, it is necessary to have quotas. It is time to move on, nonetheless, and to go beyond the 3% quota. We need to monitor this area much more carefully and there is an onus on us all to improve on the current quota and monitor compliance. I again ask the Minister of State to accept my amendment.