Erin McGreehan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I also raise the matter of the ESRI report on the employment rates for people with disabilities. Those figures have not come as a surprise because we know about the barriers to helping people with disabilities into our workforce. It is not a friendly place. I call on the Department of Social Protection to publish the Indecon report on the cost of disabilities. The report was commissioned over two years ago and should be released. It should be published before the upcoming budget because as we know, there are extra costs for people with disabilities.

The ESRI report referred to the number of people with disabilities who are employed in our country. We must look at our public sector. I want to highlight that the reasonable accommodation fund is only open to people in the private sector. If we want to raise the number of people involved and have a more inclusive workplace, we need to start with what we have control over, that is, the public sector. People in the public sector who might need reasonable accommodation and some assistive technology must go to their line managers. A person told me they had to write a business case to get help to do their job a little better and more productively and to help them to feel like a part of the team. That business case was not accepted and the person in question was told they had to prove themselves. That is because the reasonable accommodation fund is not for public sector employees, and is only for those in the private sector. It would be great if that was taken into consideration in the next budget. It would also be great if the Indecon report was published and some action was taken on foot of it.