Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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255. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the way in which his Department and agencies under his 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 he will make a statement on the matter. [32744/21]

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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As Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, I have policy responsibility for recruitment to the Civil Service. The Civil Service is strongly committed to equality of opportunity for all in terms of its recruitment and employment practices. This commitment is demonstrated in the Civil Service2030 Renewal Strategythat was launched last month.

The Public Appointments Services (PAS), which is an body under the aegis of my Department, is the principal recruiter for the Civil Service. PAS plays a central role in attracting a diverse range of talented people from all backgrounds to take up employment opportunities in the Civil Service.

PAS has established a dedicated Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Unit and embedded Diversity Champions throughout the organisation. In March 2021, PAS launched its first Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy 2021-2023following extensive and ongoing engagements with NGOs, including representatives from organisations including, for example, Mi-Wow, New Communities Partnership, AkiDwA, Business In The Community, the National Youth Council, the Immigrant Council of Ireland as well as groups representing members of the Traveller and Roma communities.

Employment of people with disabilities

Officials from my Department and from PAS sit on the Implementation Group for the National Comprehensive Employment Strategy for the Employment of People with Disabilities 2015-2024. This national strategy commits to increase the percentage of staff with a disability from 3% to 6% by 2024 (presently 3% under the Disability Act 2005). This employment target is monitored by the National Disability Authority. At the end of 2019, 5.1% of civil servants self-declared as having a disability. Data at the end of 2020 is presently being collated for return to the NDA.

There are many positive examples under CES of how my Department, working alongside key stakeholders in the Civil Service including PAS, has been involved in promoting civil service employment pathways for persons with a disability. These include:

Willing Able Mentoring (WAM) Programme

In partnership with AHEAD, this offers graduates with a disability a 6 month mentored paid work placement in either the private sector or Civil Service. My Department and PAS play a key role in driving the annual intakes of work placements across the Cvil Service. To date, WAM has placed over 490 graduates, of which 47% (230) have been placements across 33 Departments/Offices. Over 80% of WAM graduates have subsequently secured longer-term employment upon completion of their WAM programme. Officials from my Department are presently scoping the possibility of a confined competition to create permanent civil service employment opportunities for graduates of the WAM programme.

Oireachtas Work Learning (OWL) Programme

OWL is an applied learning, development and socialisation programme for adults with an intellectual disability that was launched as a pilot programme in September 2018. It is facilitated by the Houses of the Oireachtas Service in collaboration with two sponsor organisations, KARE and WALK. The goal of the Programme is to provide trainees with the skills, knowledge and ability to gain meaningful employment via the unique opportunity to gain practical work experience, as well as accredited learning over an 11 month period. Over a quarter of the initial OWL interns have since gone on to secure permanent civil service employment through confined competitions.

Employment of people from ethnic minority and socially disadvantage backgrounds including members of the Traveller and Roma Community

The Department of Children, Equality, Diversity, Integration and Youth (DCEDIY) is leading out on the Migrant Integration Strategy 2017-2021 that set a minimum 1% employment target for the people of ethnic minority/EEA migrant status.

PAS have recently undertaken a review of general competitions in 2020 at all levels within the Civil Service to review the number of applicants from ethnic minority backgrounds that applied for, and were successful in, competitions. This information is set out in the table below.

Officials from my Department are participating on a Joint Working Group with officials from DCEDIY to progress a number of Programme for Government commitments in this area, including the development of paid internships. It is planned to leverage the positive experience of the OWL and WAM Programmes by partnering with NGOs. My Department and PAS, for example, are presently supporting the introduction of a pilot paid internship programme for members of the Traveller and Roma Community by the Department of Justice.

Officials from my Department and PAS have also recently made submissions to, and appeared before, the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Key Issues affecting the Traveller Community in relation to recent initiatives to promote employment opportunities in the civil service.

OneLearning, the Civil Service Learning and Development Shared Service Centre based within my Department, is in the process of tendering for its second generation of training courses for civil servants following extensive stakeholder engagement, including participating by representatives of IHREC.It is envisaged that a number of additional training courses on equality, diversity and inclusion will be developed for civil servants will come on stream and will include courses on the Public Sector Equality and Human Rights Duty.

Under Action 16 of Our Public Service 2020, my Department has also recently developed and launched an Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Vision Statement and Maturity Model for the Public Service.

In terms of civil servants based in my own Department, the HR Unit developed the People@PER HR Strategythat has a focus on embracing and embedding a culture of diversity and inclusion across the Department through diversity initiatives and training. This has included the establishment of a vibrant cross-Divisional and cross-grade Diversity and Inclusion staff forum, the PERspectives Group. My Department has a Disability Liaison Officer (DLO) who supports new members of staff with a disability or existing staff who acquire a disability and raise awareness about disability. New hires receive the Code of Practice for the Employment of People with a Disability in the Irish Civil Service, a welcome letter from the Department’s DLO and FAQs on Disability prepared by the National Disability Authority. The induction of new hires includes a presentation and Q&A session with the DLO.

In September 2020, I published a State Bodies Code of Practice Annex of Gender Balance, Diversity & Inclusion. This requires the Chairperson of each board to submit a comprehensive report to the relevant Minister each year that must set out progress in addressing gender equality and diversity issues.

In terms of bodies under my aegis, all have appointed Disability Liaison Officers (DLOs) and have proactively made available work placement opportunities for participants on the WAM and OWL programmes, with a number of these being converted to permanent positions. Embedding diversity and inclusion with each body is a core focus of the respective Management Boards with key ED&I initiatives reflected in existing local HR strategies or those being developed by bodies, such as the EMPOWER People Strategy in the case of the Office of Government Procurement.

I am committed to ensuring that we continue to build a diverse Civil Service that is reflective of the modern Ireland that we serve.

In the case of Candidates that voluntarily identified to PAS as being from an ethnic minority background