Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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756. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills how his Department and public bodies and agencies that operate under his remit meet their obligations for reasonable accommodation under the Employment Equality Acts 1998-2015. [23049/23]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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My Department is committed to providing reasonable accommodations to staff with disabilities. The Department is also committed to addressing the health and safety needs of all employees, including employees with disabilities. For this purpose, staff may be asked to indicate if they have any needs for reasonable accommodation or health and safety supports related to a disability.

My Department has a designated Disability Liaison Officer (DLO) who is the point of contact for staff members with disabilities and their managers. The DLO assists and supports staff with disabilities, in confidence, providing necessary information, guidance, suggestions and advice. The DLO also assists with any reasonable accommodations and/or equipment which a staff member with a disability might require to carry out their role.

The DLO is a member of the Civil Service Disability Liaison Network which meets regularly with DLOs from all departments to share best practice in the area of supporting staff with disabilities.

Part V of the Disability Act 2005 requires that public bodies promote and support the employment of people with disabilities and ensure that 3% of staff employed by them are people with disabilities. The percentage of people with disabilities employed by my Department at present is 9.92%. The Comprehensive Employment Strategy for People with Disabilities for 2015 – 2024, commits the Government to progressively increasing the statutory target for the employment of people with disabilities from 3% to a minimum of 6% in the public sector by 2024. In order that my Department can meet its legal responsibility to report annually on the number and proportion of staff with a disability, every employee (including temporary and part-time employees) is required to complete and sign a confidential form to establish whether or not the employee has a disability within the meaning of the Disability Act.

The information in respect of state bodies is not held by my Department. Contact details for these bodies are set out in the attached document should the Deputy wish to contact them directly with this query .

Note 1 – In regard to the Higher Education Authority (HEA) and the Irish Research Council (IRC) as the IRC operates under the auspices of the HEA. Mr Mellett will address Oireachtas queries for both the HEA and IRC. Please use Oireachtas@hea.ie and Oireachtas@research.ie respectively to contact Mr Mellett.