Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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896. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if her Department recognises a disability employment service (details supplied) as 23 separate companies, and how this will impact on tendering processes for the services it currently offers; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [16948/23]

Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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897. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection what supports and capacity building funding is available to assist not-for profit organisations currently providing services funded by her Department that will be required to tender to receive this funding; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [16949/23]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 896 and 897 together.

Employment services for people with disabilities are currently provided by 23 EmployAbility service providers across the State on behalf of my Department.

My officials are preparing a procurement process to update current EmployAbility service contracts in order to comply with legal advice from the Chief State Solicitor’s Office and to meet the Department’s objective of shifting emphasis from financial monitoring of service providers to focusing on service quality for clients.

It is not the intention of this procurement to significantly change the nature of the services currently provided to clients, reflecting the overall effectiveness of the current service. Independent reviews undertaken of the service provision found that they were broadly satisfactory.

The proposed new EmployAbility model aims to enhance the autonomy of the service providers giving them control over financial and staffing decisions to enable them to more effectively provide a high-quality employment service for people with disabilities.

Stakeholder engagement is a key aspect of this procurement and my officials have met with each EmployAbility service provider in recent months to discuss the planned procurement process.  This engagement will continue until the publication of the request for tender, planned for later this year.

It is in everyone’s interests that my Department continues to provide a quality employment service for people with disabilities and they will continue to work with all stakeholders on the best way to achieve this while ensuring contracts are legally compliant.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.