Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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426. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development the way in which her Department and agencies under her remit are working towards enabling access to employment for persons from minority and or disadvantaged communities, including, but not limited to, persons with disabilities, persons from ethnic minorities, Travellers, Mincéirí; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [32745/21]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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My Department and the agencies under its remit provide a number of supports which contribute towards enabling access to employment for persons from minority and or disadvantaged communities. These include the following:

SICAP

The Social Inclusion and Community Activation Programme (SICAP) is Ireland’s primary social inclusion funding intervention. SICAP 2018 – 2022 aims to reduce poverty and promote social inclusion and equality by supporting disadvantaged communities and individuals.

Under SICAP, funding is provided to Local Development Companies to allow them to carry out work locally to help disadvantaged individuals and the groups that represent those individuals. The programme is managed by the Local Community Development Committee (LCDCs) in each Local Authority area.

SICAP has 2 programme goals. Goal one is supporting communities, which involves supporting local community groups representing disadvantaged communities and target groups so that they can work towards solving social exclusion issues that affect them. Goal two involves supporting individuals who have been identified as being in need to improve their life chances. This can be through lifelong learning and training, getting labour market supports to improve work readiness, or working with people in broader and more holistic ways so that they can improve their quality of life and general well-being.

SICAP 2018-2022 continues to prioritise supports to those who are most marginalised and disproportionately affected by poverty. The following 13 target groups are engaged with under the Programme: Disadvantaged Children and Families; Disadvantaged Young People (aged 15 – 24); Disadvantaged Women; Lone Parents; Low Income Workers/Households; New Communities; People living in Disadvantaged Communities; People with Disabilities; Travellers; Roma; The Unemployed; The Disengaged from the Labour Market (Economically Inactive); Emerging needs category as selected by the LCDC.

In 2020 SICAP helped 26,178 people and they received in excess of 108,000 supports. Of this, 43% were from a jobless household, 27% were long-term unemployed, and 17% were under 25 and 9% were people with a disability. 6,067 people completed a lifelong learning course. 1,057 people got jobs and 1,274 set up their own business. 2,687 community groups were helped & they received in excess of 19,000 supports. 448 Social enterprises were also supported through SICAP.

Community Services Programme (CSP)

The Community Services Programme (CSP) currently supports more than 420 community organisations to provide local social, economic and environmental services through a social enterprise model. CSP funding is provided as a fixed annual contribution of €32,000 towards the cost of a manager and €19,033 towards an agreed number of full-time equivalent positions.

The programme focuses on communities where public and private sector services are lacking, either through geographical or social isolation or because of demand deficits. It supports a range of community business and social enterprises, including Local Development Companies, to deliver a diverse range of local services and employment opportunities.

CSP supported organisations must employ at least 70% of their CSP supported full time equivalents (FTEs), from across the following target groups, who are deemed most distant from the labour market, which include persons with a disability, members of the Traveller community, those most distant from the labour market, unemployed people, stabilised and recovering drug misusers and people with convictions who are in contact with the probation service.

Libraries Development

The public library service provides the Work Matters programme which promotes the library as a space to support the information and research needs of people who are seeking employment, changing career or wishing to up-skill.

Social Enterprise

Social enterprises operate in a wide range of areas including health care, environment and housing. Work Integration Social Enterprises (WISEs), support disadvantaged people to prepare for, and participate in, the labour market. The continued implementation of the National Social Enterprise Policy for Ireland will support the development of social enterprises including those providing valuable services to disadvantaged communities.

Our Rural Future

My Department's mission is “To promote rural and community development and to support vibrant, inclusive and sustainable communities throughout Ireland".

A key element of this mission are the inclusive communities. A key component of delivering on this mission is regular, ongoing and meaningful engagement with rural and community development stakeholders working to enhance the quality of life in our communities.

‘Our Rural Future- Rural Development Policy 2021-2025’ was published on 29 March 2021 and is the most ambitious and transformational policy for rural development in Ireland for decades.

The policy focuses on optimising opportunities for individuals, communities and businesses and promotes inclusivity and social cohesion, placing people and communities at the heart of the measures for delivery. It contains more than 150 commitments, across the whole-of-Government, each of which is aligned to at least one UN Sustainable Development Goal. Some of these commitments specifically support minority cohorts in rural areas, including measures geared towards access to employment, such as investment in digital connectivity and remote working infrastructure, further education and training/upskilling, each led by the relevant Government Department.

Our Rural Futurewas developed after an extensive consultation process and, as a result, it recognises the key needs of people living and working in rural areas.

My Department will continue to engage with and listen to communities as we implement the Policy over the next five years as ongoing consultation will play a key role allowing us to maximise the impact of Our Rural Futureand to develop additional measures for inclusion in the Policy.

The Department and its Agencies

The Department of Rural and Community Development was established on 19th July 2017 to provide a renewed and consolidated focus on rural and community development in Ireland.

Open recruitment for my Department is done through the Public Appointments Service (PAS) who have their own independent Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Strategy that they adhere to. This is in line with the Government’s own recently launched Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Vision Statement and Maturity Model for the Public Service.

The EDI Vision Statement and Maturity Model’s aim is to “promote equality, diversity and inclusion”. It is important that the Public Service achieves greater equality of opportunity, gender balance, diversity and inclusion across its workforce. It is also important that a consistent approach is taken, in line with equality legislation, to ensure that the Public Service is generally representative of society and respects and promotes human rights.

My Department has a Disability Liaison Officer (DLO) in place whose role is to assist and support staff with disabilities under the guidance of the National Disability Authority. This would include onboarding of new staff that require reasonable accommodation in their workplace. The DLO also plays an important role in promoting awareness about disability across the department and would support staff with disabilities when they are seeking job new opportunities and promotions.

Please note, the recruitment for the four agencies is a matter for the relevant boards and management of those agencies as they are independent entities.