Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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946. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development the absolute and relative number of persons with disabilities employed by her Department in each of the years 1 January 2015 to 31 December 2020; if these persons are in full-time or part-time roles; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [4533/21]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The Department of Rural and Community Developmentwas established on 19^thJuly 2017 to provide a renewed and consolidated focus on rural and community development in Ireland.

My Department is strongly committed to the development and implementation of measures to promote and support the employment of individuals with disabilities. The Department supports the best practice principles in this area, as set out in the 'Code of Practice for the employment of people with disability in the Civil Service'.

The Department has a Disability Liaison Officer (DLO) in place whose role is to assist and support staff with disabilities and their line managers by the provision of necessary information, appropriate contacts, guidance, suggestions and advice. The DLO also plays an important role in promoting awareness about disability across the department.

Table A outlines the number and percentage of staff in the Department of Rural and Community Development who declared a disability in 2017, 2018 and 2019:

Table A:

In relation to staff who declared a disability and who are working on a part-time or full-time basis the Department cannot provide this information, as responses to the survey are anonymous.

The Department will complete its 2020 returns in early 2021, and its return to the NDA by the deadline of 30^thJune 2021, and so those statistics are not available at this stage.