Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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23. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the way in which her Department is improving services and increasing supports for persons with disabilities. [37659/17]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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My Department, and the agencies under its remit, are involved in a number of measures which are aimed at improving services and supports for disabled persons.

The Employment Equality Acts 1998-2015 prohibit discrimination on nine grounds including the ground of disability. The Acts apply to prospective employees in claiming discrimination in access to employment. Any person who believes that s/he has experienced discrimination which is contrary to the Employment Equality Acts may seek redress by referring a complaint to the Director General of the Workplace Relations Commission, which is an Office of my Department.

Ireland’s new National Plan on Corporate Social Responsibility, ‘Towards Responsible Business 2017-2020’, was launched in June 2017.  It is aimed at supporting businesses and organisations across all sectors to adopt responsible business practices and improve their sustainability, competitiveness and ability to attract and retain talent, whilst also fostering social cohesion and protecting the environment.  The Plan aims to encourage businesses to develop strategies to integrate diversity and to promote gender equality at all levels in the workplace and for the employment of people with disabilities.

The Local Enterprise Office (LEO) Centre of Excellence facilitated a training event for 18 LEO staff, who interact with people from disadvantaged or underrepresented communities, including persons with disabilities, in Q.1 2017. The training event addressed the additional and distinctive challenges faced by people from these communities in terms of starting their own business and how LEO staff can be better prepared in terms of appreciating the client’s unique situation.  There are three similar training events scheduled for Q.4 2017.

Enterprise Ireland is actively working with partners across Government to support the vision of the Strategy for Employment for People with Disabilities. In line with Enterprise Ireland’s strategic objectives, the agency is actively supporting inclusiveness in this area as follows:

- Working with the National Disability Authority, the agency is formulating a strategy focused on fostering and supporting entrepreneurship for people with disabilities.

- Engaging with the National Disability Authority’s Centre for Excellence in Universal Design, the agency is looking at routes to commercialising universal design product ideas from National Disability Authority’s Centre’s annual Design Challenge. This includes providing general advice on funding and IP to the commended entries under the Homes for Smart Aging Competition.

In addition, in Q2 Enterprise Ireland hosted a knowledge sharing event under the Employer Support Initiative in conjunction with the National Disability Authority.

Officials of my Department are currently assisting the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel in drafting the Copyright and Related Rights (Miscellaneous Intellectual Property) Bill. One of the primary intentions of this Bill is to improve access to copyright works for persons with a disability. The Bill will allow an individual to make a personal copy of a work modified to meet their particular needs. Moreover, certain designated bodies will be able to make multiple copies of a work to meet the specific needs of persons with a disability and to share these with other designated bodies as well as directly to individuals with a disability.

Separately, Ireland has recently reached agreement at EU level on the text of a Directive and Regulation that will jointly ratify the Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons who are Blind, Visually Impaired, or otherwise Print Disabled. Following publication of the Directive in the Official Journal of the European Union, Ireland will have 12 months to transpose it into Irish law; the Regulation will automatically enter into force after 12 months. My Department is actively preparing for this transposition, to ensure that it is carried out quickly and effectively within the deadline.

The Companies Registration Office (CRO) has a dedicated Access Officer who provides the assistance necessary to enable customers with disabilities to effectively access all its services.  CRO have recently moved to a new premises which is wheelchair accessible. The website is designed to ease access for customers with disabilities with a variety of technical measures to ensure accessibility. CRO is in a position to assist customers with disabilities by providing documents at no charge in a form which will support their needs.

My Department is also committed to complying with the Code of Practice for Appointment of Persons with Disabilities to Positions in the Civil Service and Certain Public Bodies. This sets out the principles and standards to be applied in the case of external and internal recruitment of persons with disabilities and enables the Civil Service and other public bodies to fulfil their obligations to comply with government policy in this regard.

Part 5 of the Disability Act 2005 sets out the following obligation on Government Departments and public services bodies with regard to the employment of people with disabilities:

Public bodies must, insofar as practicable, take all reasonable measures to promote and support their employment of people with disabilities.

- Public bodies shall ensure, unless there are good reasons for not doing so, that at least 3% of their employees are people with disabilities.

- Public bodies must report on an annual basis to a statutory monitoring committee in their parent Department on the number of people with disabilities in their employment and the measures they are taking to promote and support their employment. The monitoring committees in turn submit their reports on such compliance to the Minister of their parent Department and the National Disability Authority (NDA).

Departments stats as at 31 December 2016