Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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22. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection the employment supports currently in place for persons with disabilities. [33147/15]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The Government is anxious to facilitate increasing participation in employment for persons with a disability. In addition to basic income support, the Department provides a wide range of work related supports for people with disabilities which play an important role in supporting participation by people with disabilities in the labour force. These include the wage subsidy scheme, the EmployAbility (supported employment) programme and the employment support programme for people with disabilities.

The wage subsidy scheme (WSS) is an employment support to the private sector for the employment of people with disabilities. The purpose of this demand-led programme is to increase the numbers of people with disabilities participating in the open labour market. The WSS provides financial incentives to private sector employers to hire people with a disability for between 21 and 39 hours per week under a contract of employment. In 2014, some 1,550 employees were supported through this programme at a cost of €12.6 million.

The EmployAbility programme is a national employment service dedicated to improving employment outcomes for job seekers with a disability. EmployAbility participants are people with a disability who are able to work a minimum of 8 hours per week and who need the support of a job coach to obtain employment in the open labour market. In December 2014, some 2,936 people were availing of the service, and the cost of the service last year was €8.5 million.

The employment support programme for people with disabilities provides various labour market supports for people with disabilities, assisting them with finding paid employment or preparing them for employment through a training or employment programme. The employment support programme is a demand-led grant scheme, with an expenditure of €0.34 million in 2014.