Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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My Department offers supports for people seeking employment though the Intreo service including EmployAbility, Early Engagement and grants such as JobsPlus. We are in the middle of reviewing and reforming a number of schemes aimed specifically at supporting disabled people into employment.

The Reasonable Accommodation Fund provides financial support for people with disabilities and for employers to help make their workplaces more accessible. The Disability Awareness Support Scheme provides funding for disability awareness training for employees.

I published a review of these schemes last autumn. It recommends combining the two schemes into a single flexible scheme, simplifying systems and processes, providing approval in principle, and promoting the reformed scheme.

My officials have been working to make these recommendations operational and I expect to launch the reformed scheme in the coming weeks.

The Wage Subsidy Scheme is an employment support to private sector employers to encourage the employment of people with disabilities in the open labour market. There are currently 1,515 employers availing of the subsidy in respect of 2,445 participant employees. Estimated expenditure on the Wage Subsidy Scheme in 2024 is €25 million.

My department is currently finalising a review of the scheme under the Comprehensive Employment Strategy for People with Disabilities. As part of this review, an extensive public consultation was undertaken during June and July 2023, with over 1,000 responses received.

I expect to publish the report in the coming months. In anticipation of recommendations in the review, I made provision in Budget 2024 to decrease the minimum hours from 21 to 15 hours as this was a key issue raised by stakeholders in the consultation. I introduced this change from 1 April this year

My Department also funds the Association for Higher Education Access and Disability (AHEAD) to deliver the Willing Able Mentoring (WAM) and ‘Get Ahead’ programmes for third-level students and graduates with disabilities.

The WorkAbility: Inclusive Pathways to Employment Programme aims to support the Employment of People with Disabilities under new European Social Funding plus. The programme will run for 5 years (2024 to 2028) and will fund projects which provide progressive pathways into employment, including self-employment, through education, training, skills development, and in-work supports for people with disabilities.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.