John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein)
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159. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the estimated full year cost of doubling expenditure on the reasonable accommodation fund. [23653/17]

Finian McGrath (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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The Reasonable Accommodation Fund assists employers to take appropriate measures to enable a person with a disability/impairment to have access to employment by providing a range of grants.

These grants and supports include the Workplace Equipment Adaptation Grant, the Personal Reader Grant, the Job Interview Interpreter Grant and the Employee Retention Grant.

The purpose of the scheme is to assist unemployed people with disabilities to gain access to the open labour market by providing grants for “reasonable accommodations” in the private sector only and to support private sector employers in the employment of people with disabilities. Based on the average spend since 2012, the estimated full year cost of doubling the expenditure would be just over €180,000.

I hope this clarifies the issue for the Deputy.