Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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362. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the absolute and relative number of persons with disabilities employed by his 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 he will make a statement on the matter. [4530/21]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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Under the Disability Act 2005, public service bodies have a duty to promote and support the employment of people with disabilities and to ensure that at least 3% of their employees are people with disabilities. In addition the Department has a statutory requirement to maintain accurate records on the number of staff with disabilities in the Department. To meet this requirement, on an annual basis, staff are requested to declare, confidentially, if they have a disability.

The following table sets out total numbers of employees in my Department in the period 2015-2019; and the numbers/percentage of employees who have declared themselves to have a disability as part of our annual survey.

Figures for 2020 are not available at this time as my Department has yet to conduct our annual survey for last year due to management of the COVID-19 situation placing significant additional demands on the HR team. Records are not retained in respect of whether the staff who have declared a disability are part time or fulltime.

My Department is committed to supporting employees with disabilities. In this regard some specific measures within my Department include:

- Participation in the Willing Able Mentoring (WAM) programme since 2018 offering graduates with disabilities a 6 month work placement within the Department.

- Support for the Job Shadow Day initiative on an annual basis, as part of the national project which brings people with disabilities and local employers together for one day; for the last number of years my Department has teamed with the Walkinstown Association for People with an Intellectual Disability (WALK). Due to Covid-19 we were not asked to participate in 2020.

- My Department recently introduced its Universal Design and Accessibility Policy and Action Plan, which aims to demonstrate the Department’s commitment to accessibility, the principles of Universal Design and reasonable accommodation for people with disabilities.

- During 2020, my Department has run Disability Awareness Training and Autism Awareness Training, supporting our commitments under the National Disability Inclusion Strategy 2017-2021.

- My Department has a Disability Liaison Officer who provides additional support to staff with disabilities on an ongoing basis, providing reasonable accommodations as appropriate. We also have a mentoring programme open to all staff.