Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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91. To ask the Minister for Finance the way his Department and public bodies and agencies under his remit are implementing Action 16 of the National Disability and Inclusion Strategy 2017-2021 (details supplied). [38480/21]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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My Department promotes Action 16 of the National Disability and Inclusion Strategy 2017-2021 when implementing the Public Service ICT Strategy and also through implementation of the eGovernment Strategy 2017 – 2020, which states under the specific principle “Inclusiveness and accessibility” that “we will design digital public services that are inclusive by default for the widest possible audience (universal design) and cater for a broad range of needs and abilities, including older people and people with disabilities”.

The commitment to accessibility and universal design is further reflected in the recently published Civil Service Renewal 2030 Strategy under the theme “Digital first and innovation”. It states that “by placing the public at the heart of digital services we will create more accessible and valued digital solutions. Adopting a customer-driven service design approach will help to ensure digital solutions are shaped by the needs and wants of the public”.

My Department continues to work on improving accessibility and adoption of universal design principles and had identified a number of compliance related issues with the web accessibility guidelines on gov.ie, the platform which hosts most Government Department websites. Working with the content owners across the Civil Service the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer addressed the majority of these. A good example where there has been significant improvement is in the adoption by Departments of the use of Plain English in the content they publish on gov.ie which now has an average reading age of 14 as compared to 23 when hosted on individual Departmental sites.

The following is the position in relation to relevant bodies under the aegis of my Department:

In line with the principles of the Central Bank of Ireland, its ICT strategy seeks to enable all staff in the successful completion of their work. ICT assist with the procurement and deployment of specialist software and tools to assist and support staff who have particular needs and requirements. The organisation has work currently underway on the Central Bank’s website to ensure that it meets accessibility requirements. The Central Bank also provides ICT facilities and services to another body under the aegis of my Department, the Investor Compensation Company DAC.

The Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman (FSPO) is committed to ensuring its information is available in accessible formats that are easy to understand. Accessibility of its services forms a key commitment within its 3-year Strategic Plan. The FSPO has committed to developing a new website in 2021 which will be in full compliance with the Web Accessibility Directive to ensure the promotion of accessibility and Universal Design principles in the rollout of its IT strategy. The new website will include an Accessibility Statement, confirming the FSPO’s compliance with the regulations under the Directive, as well as details of a mechanism through which users can provide feedback on the accessibility of the FSPO’s digital services.

Further to Action 16 of the National Disability and Inclusion Strategy 2017-2021, in ensuring its information is available in accessible formats that are easy to understand, Home Building Finance Ireland (HBFI) promotes accessibility and universal design principles in the implementation of the Public Service ICT Strategy 2015 where applicable. HBFI is committed to making information accessible to all and further details on its accessibility are outlined under ‘Legal’ on its website.

While the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC) is in the very advanced stages of wind down with no employees, the Special Liquidators have always been conscious to observe the principles of inclusion and to provide any public sector information, such as IBRC's Annual Progress Report, in an accessible, easy to understand format.

The Irish Financial Services Appeals Tribunal (IFSAT) has published a National Adult Literacy Agency (NALA) approved guideline to the IFSAT Rules and is currently carrying out revisions to its website to ensure that it is in an accessible format.

The Irish Fiscal Advisory Council recognises the importance of ensuring that its ICT infrastructure, in particular its website, is accessible. It ensures that its videos are subtitled, that images have alt text (a short written description of an image, which makes sense of that image when it can't be viewed) and that content on the website is machine readable so that it is compatible with immersive readers. It is committed to ensuring that its website continues to meet the basic four POUR principles (Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, Robust).

The National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) is committed to making the information publicly available on its website accessible to all. NAMA’s accessibility statement is available on its website.

The National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) ensures that its public sector information is available in accessible formats that are easy to understand, promote accessibility and use universal design principles in the implementation of the Public Service ICT Strategy 2015 where applicable to the NTMA. The NTMA is committed to making information accessible to all and this is further outlined on the NTMA website under ‘Accessibility’.

The Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General has promoted accessibility and universal design principles in the implementation of the Public Service ICT Strategy Office by improving accessibility of the Office’s website through installation of software called Recite Me. This accessibility software facilitates a wide variety of people to access the website content in a way that takes account of individual requirements and abilities. This software provides text to speech functionality, fully customisable styling features, reading support aids and a translation tool with over 100 languages, including 35 text to speech voices and many other features. In order to optimise its accessibility, the Office has recently commissioned an accessibility scan and assessment of its website.

The Office of the Revenue Commissioners is committed to making its services fully accessible to all individuals. As part of this commitment, Revenue’s online services are designed in line with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0, as set out by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). These Guidelines are an internationally recognised benchmark of accessibility.

The Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland (SBCI) ensures that its public sector information is available in accessible formats that are easy to understand, promote accessibility and utilise universal design principles in the implementation of the Public Service ICT Strategy 2015 where applicable.

The Tax Appeals Commission has adopted universal accessibility and the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) V2.0 Level AA in the design and development of its website. In its Statement of Strategy 2021-2024, the Commission places a strong emphasis on the right to fair procedures, equal access and equal treatment and strives to ensure that it conducts all activities through this prism for both employees and those who engage with the Commission.

Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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92. To ask the Minister for Finance the way his Department and public bodies and agencies under his remit are implementing Action 32 of the National Disability and Inclusion Strategy 2017-2021 (details supplied). [38509/21]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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My Department actively engages with a range of stakeholders in the delivery of its objectives including representatives from the community and voluntary sector and from groups representing people with disabilities, and regularly reviews and refreshes its stakeholder engagement structures to ensure there is a broad level of engagement across sectors.

An example of this is the National Economic Dialogue, an important consultation mechanism used to inform economic and social policy development in the context of the annual budgetary cycle. It provides a deliberative forum for stakeholders to participate in an open and inclusive exchange on the competing economic and social priorities facing the Government. The Dialogue is hosted jointly by my Department and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. Representatives of a variety of community, voluntary and environmental groups participate along with stakeholders from business, trade unions, research institutes and the academic community. Members of the Committee on Budgetary Oversight represent the Oireachtas through their participation in the event. The sessions are structured to maximise the opportunities for stakeholders to actively engage with the Ministers for Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform and their Ministerial colleagues as well as senior officials.

A number of bodies under the aegis of my Department provide public services as follows:

The Central Bank of Ireland actively engages with people with disabilities through a number of fora. Its internal employee resource group, the Bankability Network, is responsible for providing support to employees with disabilities, raising awareness among staff of disability issues and attracting prospective employees with disabilities to the Bank. The Bank engages with the Bankability Network on relevant matters to ensure colleagues with disabilities are provided with an opportunity to contribute on these issues. It has a Diversity and Inclusion Working Group which provides an opportunity for members to inform and contribute to the Bank’s overall Disability and Inclusion agenda, and has an internal Disability Taskforce in place that is responsible for coordinating and overseeing compliance with disability legislation. The Bank engages with external organisations to support the employment of persons with disabilities. It continues to engage with the Association for Higher Education Access and Disability (AHEAD) on the facilitation of Willing Able Mentoring (WAM) work placements, ring-fencing roles on its graduate programmes for those who apply via WAM. The Bank participates in various events and workshops including AHEAD’s annual careers event for students and graduates with disabilities.

The Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman (FSPO) is committed to the priorities set out in the National Disability Inclusion Strategy 2017-2021. The accessibility of its services for people with disabilities and the consideration of wider human rights and equality issues related to the FSPO’s functions form a key commitment of its 3-year Strategic Plan. In particular, the FSPO has committed to reviewing its key projects over the lifetime of the Strategic Plan through a human rights and equality lens which will involve disability-proofing its services and may include consultation, as appropriate. Recently, the FSPO conducted an open public consultation process to inform the development of its Strategic Plan.

The Office of the Revenue Commissioners is fully committed to providing excellent service to all individuals. As part of that commitment, Revenue provides a network of trained Access Officers who are available to assist customers with disabilities. To ensure the quality of this service is maintained to the highest standards, Access Officers receive ongoing training in disability awareness and equality, guided by material published by the National Disability Authority and the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission. Revenue also works with Sign Language Interpreting Service (SLIS), the national sign language interpreting service for Ireland, to provide a free Irish sign language interpreting service to customers with hearing disabilities.