Fiona O'Loughlin (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)
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124. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the key measures in the Action Plan for Jobs 2018 for persons with disabilities. [27129/18]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The Action Plan for Jobs is one of the Government’s key instruments to support job creation. The Action Plan for Jobs process has worked well to achieve its primary objective. Since the first Plan was launched in early 2012, there are over 345,000 more people at work. The unemployment rate has fallen from a high of 16 per cent to 5.8 per cent in May 2018.

The four key aims of Action Plan for Jobs 2018 are that:

- Ireland’s enterprise base remains successful amid the uncertainty created by Brexit;

- all parts of the country achieve their potential in terms of job creation;

- those entering, re-entering, or in the workforce have the incentives and skills needed to prosper; and

- Ireland’s enterprise base remains successful by focusing relentlessly on competitiveness, productivity, and innovation.

The Action Plan for Jobs 2018 reflects the Enterprise 2025 Renewed priorities and also the priorities within other Government strategies that are relevant to job creation, including for people with disabilities, e.g. Pathways to Work Strategy and the Action Plan for Education. Pathways to Work is the main Government initiative encouraging access to the labour market and ultimately participation in employment. It is complemented by the Action Plan for Jobless Households, the National Disability Inclusion Strategy, and the Comprehensive Employment Strategy for People with Disabilities.

Under the Action Plan for Jobs 2018, there is a focus on increasing participation in the labour market, including assisting access to work for those who wish to do so, by ensuring they have opportunity to address real or perceived skills deficiencies, whether they are discouraged workers or people with disabilities.

Specific measures in Action Plan for Jobs 2018 include implementing the Pathways to Work Strategy, increasing awareness among employers of the range of services and supports available to maximise take up, and improving information flow on welfare-to-work schemes, targeting employers and inactive people. 

There is also a specific action to increase the focus of activation efforts on groups outside the labour force, by:

- reviewing the range of income supports (including in-work supports) for people with disabilities to ensure payments are aligned between schemes and, if appropriate, amend the payment structure to ensure that it supports a return to work for people who wish to do so;

- expanding the use of Intreo Centres as a gateway to engage with people with disabilities and increase the number of Intreo staff trained in the provision of employment supports to people with disability; and

- developing online ready-reckoner tools for people on disability payments to assess the net benefits of returning to work.