Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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365. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth 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. [32734/21]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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My Department supports a range of initiatives that work towards enabling access to employment from persons from minority groups. The Migrant Integration Strategyis a whole-of-Government Strategy to support the integration of migrants. The Strategy includes a range of actions to support employment and pathways to work for migrants. The Strategy has been extended until the end of 2021 to reflect the impact of COVID-19 on implementation.

Under the 2016 European Social Fund (“ESF”) Programme for Employability, Inclusion and Learning (“PEIL”) Integration and Employment of Migrants (“IEM”) programme. Five projects were approved for funding of €3.3m over 4 years. These projects are completing in 2021. This programme is funded 50% by EU, and 50% by the Government of Ireland.

There is currently a Call for Proposals open for projects to provide employment supports for persons within the International Protection System, in the amount of €250,000.

The Irish Refugee Protection Programme(IRPP) operates a Programme of resettlement across different counties throughout the country. Integral to the Programme is the employment of both Resettlement Workers (RSWs) and Inter-cultural workers (ICWs) who assist the refugees in their transition to independent community living.

The ICWs in particular encourage all refugees to partake in education with a specific focus on English language training. In addition, they seek to identify any skills, trades or past educational experience that refugees may possess with a view to matching them with potential employers or indeed further training or educational providers.

Others refugees with pre-existing trade skills have completed trade-focussed upskilling to allow them seek work in Ireland, for example Safepass and Forklift training. Others are facilitated in accessing Community Employment Schemes, again with a view to building on existing skill-sets in the hope of accessing full-time employment at a later stage.

Beyond that, in other instances RSWs have leveraged local contacts on the ground to provide people with the opportunity to obtain part-time work, again with a view to building up skill-sets and experience with the ultimate goal being to access full-time employment into the future.

The Anti-Racism Committeeare in the middle of their Public Consultation (21 April to 14 July 2021) towards developing a National Action Plan Against Racism. Access to employment is one of the key themes of the Consultation.

The National Traveller and Roma Inclusion Strategy(NTRIS) 2017 – 2021 represents a whole of Government approach to bring about meaningful change and progress for the Traveller and Roma communities in Ireland. The Strategy includes a range of actions to support employment and pathways to work for Travellers and Roma

My Department provides funding to the Special Initiative for Travellers (SITS) which is an initiative focussing on 7 locations nationwide with a view to coaching and assisting Travellers wishing to enter employment.

In relation to persons with disabilities, my Department is responsible for co-ordinating the Comprehensive Employment Strategy for People with Disabilities 2015-2024 (CES). The CES is the primary disability employment policy initiative in Ireland. It is a cross-government approach, bringing together actions by Government Departments and Agencies to address the barriers and challenges to employment of persons with disabilities. The CES’s strategic priorities are to build skills, capacity and independence, to provide bridges and supports into work, to make work pay, to promote job retention and re-entry to work, to provide coordinated and seamless supports and to engage employers.

The public sector provides crucial opportunities for people with disabilities to access employment. The Government has committed to doubling the target for employment of people with disabilities in the public service from 3% to 6%. This is a commitment contained in the CES. This will be done by means of the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) (Amendment) Bill. The General Scheme of that Bill will come to Government for approval this month.

Part 5 of the Disability Act 2005 sets out the legal obligations of public service bodies:-

- To promote and support the employment of people with disabilities

- To meet a target of 3% of employees with disabilities

- To report every year on achievement of these obligations

The National Disability Authority (NDA) has a statutory role in monitoring employment of persons with disabilities in the public sector. In their latest Report “2018 Report on Compliance with Part 5 of the Disability Act on the Employment of People with Disabilities in the Public Sector” the NDA reported that the then Department of Children and Youth Affairs and the agencies under the remit of the Department had all exceeded the 3% employment target for people with disabilities.

The Disability Liaison Officer of my Department works closely with the Public Appointments Service, who recruit for general civil grades for my Department and with staff who identify the need for an accommodation to ensure that they are supported in entering and remaining in the workplace.

My Department also participates in the Willing, Able and Mentoring Programme which is run by AHEAD and provides 6 month placements for graduates with disabilities.

My Department is willing to participate in any civil service scheme to enable access to employment for persons from minority and or disadvantaged communities.