Shane McEntee (Meath, Fine Gael)
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Question 12: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the details of the facilitator network; when this network was set up; the number of persons with a disability it has assisted each year since its establishment; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22930/05]

Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
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The jobs facilitation programme was originally established with Government approval in July 1993. Currently, 46 facilitators are supported by ten regional co-ordinators and operate in 34 locations around the country. In April 2004, the jobs facilitation and family support programmes of my Department merged to form the social and family support services, SFSS. This was done to enable the resources at my Department's disposal be utilised in the most effective and efficient manner to assist the most marginalised citizens, including those with disabilities and their families. It was also intended to encourage economic activation amongst those most distanced from the labour market. Job facilitators and family service project officers were renamed facilitators at that time and now operate within a single streamlined network.

The numbers of persons with a disability assisted onto a progression path by the facilitation network since its introduction are not available. In general terms however, the majority of customers taking up the back to work or back to education options do so with the help and encouragement of their local facilitator. Some 7,000 people transferred from a disability payment to one of my Department's support options during the years 2001 to 2004, inclusive.

In addition to the measures I have already mentioned, my Department operates the special projects fund administered by facilitators, which provides enhanced supports to people, including the long-term ill and people with disabilities, who need additional help to progress to further training and employment. In 2004, 23 special projects catered for people with disabilities at a cost of over €500,000.

As well as the special projects fund, facilitators have access to a separate stream of funding under the national development plan. The aim of these projects is to encourage family members of customers with disabilities to participate in self development programmes or, in some instances, in "taster" educational programmes. It is hoped that the people involved will move on to more formalised training and educational programmes. In 2004, six projects catered for people with disabilities and their families at a cost of about €66,000.

Disability benefit and invalidity pension customers may, in certain circumstances, be allowed to work for therapeutic or rehabilitative reasons with a view to improving their prospects of returning to full-time work at a future date. People receiving disability allowance payments can earn up to €120 from this type of work before their income is assessed as means.

An increasing emphasis is being placed by facilitators on encouraging customers with disabilities to avail of the options available to them, for example, a project to support people with disabilities commenced earlier this year in the midlands. Its objective is to identify a more integrated employment support approach for people with disabilities. This project is being undertaken by my Department in association with the Health Service Executive and FÁS. My Department's facilitators played an integral part in the operation of the project. It is aimed, initially, at persons aged between 18 to 25 years of age in receipt of disability allowance.

The information gathered to date from this project is now under review to ascertain how the learning can best be used for the benefit of customers in the future.