Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Increasing employment opportunities for disabled persons involves the tackling of barriers to labour force participation and a whole of Government response.

Government’s approach to supporting employment for people with disabilities is set out in the Comprehensive Employment Strategy for People with Disabilities (2015 – 2024), led by the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, and the Make Work Pay Action Plan associated with that strategy. This is a cross-government approach that brings together actions by different Departments and State Agencies in a concerted effort to address the barriers and challenges that impact on employment rates of people with disabilities.

In terms of specific employment schemes and programmes, the Department of Social Protection plays the lead role, supporting jobseekers, employees with disabilities, and private sector employers seeking to hire or retain a person with a disability.

My Department is represented on the Steering Group for the Comprehensive Employment Strategy for People with Disabilities 2015-2024. Officials from my Department also sat on the steering group for the National Disability Inclusion Strategy 2017-2021 and are currently engaged with DCEDIY on a successor to that strategy.

Recruitment to the Public Service is centralised with the Public Appointments Service (PAS) who play a key role in attracting candidates from all sectors of society, ensuring that routes to career opportunities are accessible to all who are interested. They are committed to equality of opportunity for all candidates.

A candidate with a disability or in need of reasonable accommodations are strongly encouraged to share this with PAS so they can ensure people get the support needed.

My Department, as a public service employer, has a legal obligation under the Disability Act 2005 to, insofar as practicable, take all reasonable measures to promote and support the employment of people with disabilities. In line with the Government commitment to increase the percentage of employing people with a disability in the public sector to 6% by 2024, the Department has reached a level of 7%. My Department has in place a dedicated Disability Liaison Officer who acts as a proactive contact for staff with disabilities, to assist and support them, and to assist in the implementation of best Human Resource practices in line with equality legislation. My Department is also participating in the Willing Able Mentoring (WAM) and the Oireachtas Work Learning (OWL) programmes.

More generally, the Employment Equality Acts 1998-2015 come under the responsibility of my Department. The Acts place obligations on employers to take reasonable steps to accommodate the needs of employees and job applicants with disabilities. Denial of reasonable accommodation under the Acts can be a cause for action and may amount to discrimination on disability grounds. The Workplace Relations Commissions (WRC) deals with all complaints of discrimination, not limited to workplace complaints, made under the Equality Acts.

In addition, my Department has brought forward important enhancements to workers’ rights. The Sick Leave Act 2022 ensures that, for the first time, all qualifying employees will have an entitlement to employer-paid sick leave. This progressive Act commenced on 1st January 2023. Workers will be entitled to up to 3 days medically certified sick leave per year, rising incrementally to 10 by 2026.

Enterprise routes such as self-employment and entrepreneurship are increasingly important employment options for people with disabilities. Last year my Department commissioned the OECD to undertake a report to assess inclusive entrepreneurship training and provide recommendations on how to improve the provision of training interventions to improve their accessibility and impact. My officials are currently completing a process review and will be engaging with the organisations who participated in the OECD workshop to ascertain appropriate contact information of relevant providers regarding inclusive supports to entrepreneurs. In conjunction with the Local Enterprise Offices, a working group is exploring options for the development of a bespoke programme for new entrepreneurs. Promotion of inclusiveness will be a key feature of any new programme.

The agencies under the aegis of my Department have a number of initiatives in place to help encourage employers to employ persons with disabilities:

• Enterprise Ireland is focused on ensuring that their supports for entrepreneurs and enterprise are accessible to all, including people with disabilities. EI have signed a partnership agreement with Open Doors to further develop awareness campaigns and programmes that will utilise success stories of self-employed and entrepreneur role models with a variety of disabilities.
• The Local Enterprise Offices are progressing a new online course Entrepreneurship for People with Disabilities which will begin in September 2023.
• While the remit of IDA Ireland is to attract and retain foreign direct investment, they have launched a Pilot Programme designed to widen the talent pool and attract people from diverse backgrounds to avail of employment opportunities. IDA Ireland is in the third year of its Work Placement Programme with the Open Doors Initiative.
• IDA Ireland will be returning as the headline sponsor for Legacy Dublin ’23. This programme is designed for future leaders to reimagine their community, their workplace and their environments 20 years into the future and they spend 3 days creating solutions that are rooted in inclusion and purpose. IDA will also be sponsoring 20 spaces for persons from underrepresented groups to attend. Last year’s spaces were filled from such organisations as Open Doors Initiative, MASI, Exchange House, Sanctuary Runners, Traveller Graduate Network, NCBI and Youth Reach.
• IDA Ireland promote access to reasonable accommodations during the application/recruitment process, onboarding, new hire induction and training sessions. All requests are handled confidentially on a case-by-case basis. The Reasonable Accommodation Passport, developed between ibec and ICTU, is currently being piloted in the organisation.