John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein)
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662. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of employers in receipt of the wage subsidy scheme under strand 1, 2 and 3; the number of employers that have participated in the scheme since it was introduced; the number of persons with a disability who are engaged with the scheme; and the number of persons with a disability who have engaged in the scheme since its introduction. [50427/18]

John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein)
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663. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the amount spent on the wage subsidy scheme for each of the years since its introduction. [50428/18]

John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein)
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664. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of inspections of premises carried out in which the wage subsidy scheme is being paid in respect of a person with a disability in each of the years since its introduction. [50429/18]

John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein)
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665. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of employers that have been disqualified from the wage subsidy scheme since its introduction. [50430/18]

John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein)
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668. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection when her Department last reviewed the wage subsidy scheme, the employability service and the reasonable accommodation fund. [50433/18]

Finian McGrath (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 662 to 665, inclusive, and 668 together.

The objective of the wage subsidy scheme (WSS) is to increase the likelihood of people with disabilities participating in the open labour market by making available a financial subsidy to private sector employers. Private sector companies/organisations employ people who happen to have a disability, and these employees enjoy the same employment rights, protections, terms and conditions of employment and any other benefits of their employment as would any other employee of a particular company.

The scheme transferred from the former FÁS agency to the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection (DEASP) in 2012 and its operational guidelines were reviewed in 2016 by the Department and in subsequent years. The guidelines are published on the Department's website. A detailed description of the WSS and the different payment strands is available on welfare.ie, specifically .

Expenditure on the Wage Subsidy Scheme from 2012 to 2018 is shown in Table 1.

Table 1: Expenditure on the Wage Subsidy Scheme

In 2012, there were 663 employers availing of the scheme. At end October 2018, there were 1,663 in receipt of strand 1 subsidies with 137 of these in receipt of Strand 2 and three in receipt of Strand 3. Each of these payments is in effect a strand one payment. The number of employments for which a subsidy is being claimed is presented in tabular form.

Table 2: Wage Subsidy Scheme: Number of employments (end of year)

The Department can carry out an annual review of an employer using on-site visits (where a DEASP officer interviews employers and employees) or desk reviews (which include a review of the subsidy and a productivity level report that requires signed declarations by the employer and employee). During a desk or on site monitoring visit the case officer can seek copies of various supporting documentation including tax, wage or time and attendance records to check that the terms and conditions of the subsidy are being adhered to.

The Department does not currently collect data centrally on the number of these inspections or on the number of employers that have been disqualified. Information will be collated and sent to the Deputy. It is expected that the move to the improved IT infrastructure in 2019 will improve the ability centrally to report on the scheme.

A review of the EmployAbility Service by Indecon was published in 2016. The Department intends to undertake a review of the Reasonable Accommodation Fund in 2019 with a view to assessing how its operations could be more effective.