Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats)
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260. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the percentage or number of staff working with a disability within her Department and the agencies under her aegis in 2018, 2019 and 2020; and the actions being undertaken by her Department to actively recruit and retain persons with disabilities. [42153/20]

Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party)
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My Department is required to provide information annually to the National Disability Authority (NDA) on the number of persons with disabilities employed on 31st December each year in both the Department and in agencies under its aegis.

The NDA has a statutory role in monitoring employment of persons with disabilities in the public sector, arising from Part 5 of the Disability Act 2005,  and publishes the statistics provided on its website.  My Department did not exist in its current configuration in 2018 and 2019.

The relevant statistics for 2018 provided by the former Department of Culture,  Heritage and the Gaeltacht,  and of the former Departments of Communications,  Climate Action and Environment,  and of Transport,  Tourism and Sport, are available on the NDA website at the following location: .  

The relevant statistics gathered by the former Department of Culture,  Heritage and the Gaeltacht for 2019 are shown in the table below.It was the responsibility of the former Departments of Communications,  Climate Action and Environment,  and of Transport,  Tourism and Sport,  to report to the NDA on the relevant statistics for tourism,  sport and media agencies in 2019.

The relevant statistics for my Department for 2020 are not yet available.

Appointments to posts in my Department are normally made from recruitment panels of the Public Appointments Service (PAS).I am informed that my Department actively seeks to accommodate new recruits with disabilities when such persons become available from PAS panels.