Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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232. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if she considered or discussed the necessity to reduce the requirement of 21 hours of work under the wage subsidy scheme in particular for persons with Down's syndrome; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [25972/18]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection’s supports for people with disabilities have been designed to enable persons with a disability to achieve their employment ambitions by focusing on the individual person’s ability and capacity rather than taking an approach that focuses on a particular type of disability.

The key objective of the wage subsidy scheme (WSS) is to increase the likelihood of people with disabilities participating in the open labour market by providing financial incentives to private sector employers. The WSS does this by allowing the employer to make up the cost of a potential shortfall in productivity through a wage subsidy provided by the Department.

To participate on the WSS, an employee must work a minimum of 21 hours per week up to a maximum of 39 hours per week. The basis for the creation of the WSS was to incentivise the employment of people with disabilities in the open labour market. A proposal to significantly reduce the hours worked condition for the WSS or to link the scheme with specific types of disability would not be consistent with the aim of supporting open market employment and consequently there are no plans to change the hours worked condition at this time.

I hope this clarifies the issue for the Deputy.