Erin McGreehan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State is welcome for my Commencement matter. I raise this matter because every Thursday morning, members of the Joint Committee on Disability Matters hear from people with disabilities and how barriers are erected that prevent them from taking part in everyday life. Employment opens a door to so many opportunities. It is about independence and people as individuals being able to articulate for themselves and have ambition.

I ask the Department to highlight the rationale for barring self-employed people with disabilities from availing of the Department's reasonable accommodation fund in order to support themselves in reaching their full potential and the full potential of their businesses.We have 130,000 people with a disability, aged 15 and over, at work. That means only 22% of working-age people with disabilities are at work, the worst rate in Europe. The figure is very depressing. There is a fundamental flaw in how we go about providing workplace grants and reasonable accommodation grants. Workplace grants to assist people with a disability are attached to the employer not the employee, the person they are there to help. The employee is then tied to that employment. In no other workplace would the reasonable accommodation be at the liberty of the employer. It is ludicrous that self-employed disabled persons are barred from accessing the scheme and prevented from supporting themselves with reasonable workplace adaptations.

Last year, I wrote to the Department asking how much had been spent in recent years on reasonable accommodation grants in the workplace. The employee retention grant caught my eye. In 2019, 2020 and 2021, not 1 cent was drawn down. Only €111,000 in total was drawn down from the Department of Social Protection in grants. Although we have 130,000 persons with a disability at work, that is the amount that was provided to support them at work. It is no wonder we have the highest unemployment rate among people with disabilities. I want to know the rationale for this. To be honest, I am not going to get a satisfactory answer. Will the Minister of State, Deputy Calleary, impress on the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, the need for a shift in mindset in the Department and in its approach, which is not working? Only slightly more than €100,000 was drawn down in workplace grants in 2021 and not 1 cent was drawn down from the employment retention grant. That indicates there is something seriously wrong. We must associate the grants with the needs and wants of individuals.

Article 27 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, CRPD, recognises "the right of persons with disabilities to work, on an equal basis with others; this includes the right to the opportunity to gain a living by work freely chosen or accepted in a labour market and a work environment that is open... [and] inclusive" with a realisation of the right to work. We are not upholding Article 27 of the CRPD because we are not individualising the grants. We are preventing self-employed people who have the audacity to create their own business from daring to dream and to have ambition.

I hope the Minister of State can bring what I have said back to the Minister. I do not expect much from the Department's response because I have heard other answers from it. I urge the Minister of State to take this issue up with the Department.