Erin McGreehan (Fianna Fail)
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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.

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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Thank you, Acting Chair, for extending a welcome to the students from Lacken Cross. Some of the issues raised by Senator McGreehan were discussed by them some weeks ago.

I am responding to this matter on behalf of the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Humphreys. I thank the Senator not only for raising the issue but for doing so with such passion.

As the Senator is aware, the Department of Social Protection provides a wide range of disability income supports that are designed to support people with disabilities who wish to enter or return to self-employment. Disability allowance and the blind pension assist people to enter self-employment through the income disregard. The partial capacity benefit allows people on a disability social insurance payment to take up employment or self-employment.These incentives allow people to earn and retain most or some of their social welfare benefits and secondary payments.

The reasonable accommodation fund is comprised of four grants. The four grants are the workplace equipment adaptation grant, the employee retention grant, the job interview interpreter grant and the personal reader grant. I could give the Senator the full answer but I will not waste her time because I want to focus on the employee retention grant scheme. I noted her comments about there being no drawdown in respect of that grant scheme, which is designed to assist employers to retain employees who acquire a disability. It is available to any employer, including the self-employed, with employees. The grant is designed to provide funding to identify accommodation and-or training needs to enable employees to remain within the company. On foot of the Senator's intervention, I intend to ask officials in my Department to ascertain from the Department of Social Protection why there has been no drawdown and what we can do as a Department with direct interaction with employers to promote the drawdown of the employee retention grant scheme.

As the Senator knows, the Department of Social Protection is currently finalising a review of the reasonable accommodation fund, which will be published in the coming months. The review is to see how to improve the effectiveness of the grant and to identify gaps in provision, as outlined by the Senator. It also aims to improve the application and payment processes. The review will be informed by an extensive public consultation, which took place last year. I encourage her to engage directly with the Minister and the Department on that review.

In budget 2023, an additional €1 million in funding was announced to expand the provisions made under the reasonable accommodation fund grant and to support the recommendations from the forthcoming review. I assure the Senator that the question of how to improve take-up and provide adequate support to self-employed disabled people is part of that review. Certainly, from the perspective of my Department, we will work with her to ensure there is greater awareness of the supports and a greater take-up of them.

Erin McGreehan (Fianna Fail)
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I note from the Minister of State's response that the scheme is for self-employed people. I ask that it be more fully brought through to those self-employed people because I know of several with disabilities who are barred from that grant. I am grateful to him for bringing word on the employee retention scheme because if no one is drawing it down, there is something wrong. People do not know about it. It is a fantastic idea for upskilling, keeping people in work and making sure they are welcomed and encouraged into the workplace. I ask it to be far more visible on the Department's website that the scheme is for self-employed people and that the Department follows through on it.

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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I again thank the Chair for the welcome she extended to Lacken Cross students.

I do not think the Senator and I disagree on any of the issues she outlined. I will bring this to the attention of officials in my Department and ask them to follow it up through the local enterprise office network. The work of the Senator and the Joint Committee on Disability Matters she sits on, chaired by Deputy Michael Moynihan, is exemplary and extraordinary. I am more than happy to ensure our Department is playing a full role in allowing people with a disability to be the leading-edge entrepreneurs many of them already are.