Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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524. To ask the Minister for Social Protection why Ireland is the only country in Europe to exclude persons with disabilities from mainstream activation programmes. [10125/16]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The Government recognises the importance of increasing participation in employment for persons with a disability and provides a wide range of income and work related supports through the Department of Social Protection. These supports play an important role in supporting increased participation in the labour force by people with disabilities.

Work-related supports include:

- the EmployAbility service (formerly the Supported Employment Programme) which facilitates the integration of people with disabilities into paid employment in the open labour market; and

- a number of other supports specifically for employers; (the Wage Subsidy Scheme - which pays an employer a subsidy for employing a person with a disability; the Work Equipment Adaptation Grant, the Employee Retention Grant, and the Disability Awareness Scheme).

For those who are in receipt of invalidity pension or illness benefit (for at least six months) and who feel they now have some capacity for work, the partial capacity benefit (PCB) scheme allows them to work and retain a portion of their social welfare payment.

In line with its commitments in Pathways to Work 2016-2020, the Department has extended full activation support to people with disabilities who wish to avail of the service and has trained in excess of 60 employment support officers in the Intreo service in the provision of employment supports to people with disabilities. Any person with a disability is at all times free to contact the Intreo service.

Unlike job-seekers where participation in activation measures through the Intreo service is mandatory, in the case of persons in receipt of disability/illness support payments, engagement with the Intreo service is on a voluntary basis.

In terms of mainstream provision, people with a disability can access activation programmes - for example, SOLAS training courses, Community Employment schemes and JobBridge. For those previously receiving a social welfare payment, they will either retain that payment or move to a training allowance or temporary employment payment, depending on their individual circumstances.

Furthermore, the Department also funds the WAM (Willing Able Mentoring) project, the objective of which is to bring graduates and employers together to promote access to the labour market for graduates with disabilities.

In addition to access to its mainstream provision, Solas also funds customised training for people with disabilities provided by a range of Specialist Training Providers.

In short, the Government is committed to supporting as many people as possible to participate more fully in employment and to become more self-sufficient by providing supports that address barriers they may encounter in finding and sustaining work employment