Margaret Murphy O'Mahony (Cork South West, Fianna Fail)
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467. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if his Department has produced a new statement of strategy since May 2016; and if so, the measures in it to support persons with disabilities. [33626/16]

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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My Department is currently finalising a new Statement of Strategy which will set out the key objectives, outputs and related strategies for the period 2017 to 2019.  As part of this process my Department is assessing and identifying equality issues that are relevant to its functions as an employer, policy maker and service provider.  

My Department has already implemented a number of measures to support persons with disabilities.  The Department's website was re-designed in 2015 in order to make it more user-friendly and accessible to the widest possible audience, regardless of technology or ability. The website complies with the National Disability Authority's Code of Practice on Accessibility of Public Services and Information Provided by Public Bodies and aims to conform to level Double-A of the World Wide Web Consortium Web Content Accessibility Guidelines to make web content more accessible for people with disabilities.  My Department has a Disability Liaison Officer whose role it is to assist and support staff with disabilities and to promote the awareness of disability throughout the Department.  My Department has also undertaken mandatory training for all staff on the Civil Service Dignity at Work Policy.  

 Part 5 of the Disability Act 2005, provides for a statutory report on employment of people with disabilities in the public sector.  My Department has a Monitoring Committee, established under the Disability Act 2005, which reports each year on the percentage and numbers of people with disabilities employed in the bodies under the aegis of the Department.  Taken cumulatively, the overall employment of persons with a disability in all of the Department's bodies in 2015 was 4.6%, which is above the statutory target of 3% of employees.

In developing new policies and programmes, consultation with interested stakeholders is an integral part of the process and to further improve our capacity in this area, a stakeholder engagement toolkit is being prepared.