David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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Question 84: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform his views on comments (details supplied) made by the Ombudsman at the launch of her fourth annual report that there was a lack of knowledge among public servants regarding commitments under the national disability strategy; the action he will take to increase awareness of disability related issues among public bodies and their staff; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32962/08]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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Considerable progress has been made on the implementation of the National Disability Strategy. The Strategy, which underpins the participation of people with disabilities in Irish society, has been endorsed in the social partnership agreement, Towards 2016, and the Agreed Programme for Government includes a commitment to ensure that the Strategy is driven and managed from a whole of Government perspective. Progress on the implementation of the Strategy is monitored by a Senior Officials Group on Disability comprised of senior officials drawn from a range of Government Departments which reports to the Cabinet Committee on Social Inclusion, and a Stakeholder Monitoring Group.

A new Office for Disability and Mental Health was established in January 2008 to support the Minister of State for Equality, Disability Issues and Mental Health at the Department of Health and Children. This new office has cross-cutting responsibilities in a number of Departments, including my Department. All public bodies, subject to certain considerations, are legally required to improve accessibility under the Disability Act 2005. The "Code of Practice on Accessibility of Public Services and Information provided by Public Bodies" (2006) which was developed by the National Disability Authority (NDA) helps public bodies to make services and information accessible to people with disabilities and provides them with guidance on meeting their obligations under the Act. The NDA has developed and circulated a monitoring questionnaire to assist the evaluation of the implementation of this code by public bodies, and will report on the matter in due course.

Part 5 of the Disability Act 2005 provided for a statutory target, currently set at 3%, for the recruitment and employment of people with disabilities in the public sector. The Act provides for a framework for monitoring this target through monitoring committees in each Government Department. The NDA has an overall monitoring and reporting role under Part 5 of the Act and the first statutory report on the compliance by the public service with the employment target for people with disabilities was published on 4 January 2008. The second report by the NDA which concerns compliance with the target in 2007 is due to be submitted to me by the end of November. Both this report and the NDA report on the outcome of the 2006 Code of Practice monitoring questionnaire which I have referred to, when received, will provide me with the data that is required to establish the level of compliance by the public service with the two important requirements to which they relate. At this point, I can inform the Deputy that I am arranging to have the Senior Officials Group consider the comments to which the Deputy refers.

Question No. 85 answered with Question No. 33.