Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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As Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment I consider that increasing the numbers of people with disabilities participating in the labour market represents a significant opportunity for employers and the enterprise sector.

The development of policy measures and initiatives to support disability rights and inclusion fall, primarily, under the remit of my colleague the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth. Officials from my Department are currently represented at senior level on the development of the new National Disability Strategy to develop a range of actions to promote the inclusion of people with a disability in the workforce.

In terms of specific employment supports and grants provided by Government, my colleague the Minister for Social Protection, plays the lead role, supporting jobseekers, existing employees with disabilities, and private sector employers seeking to hire or retain a person with a disability. Under the Reasonable Accommodation Fund, that department can help employers and employees with a disability to take appropriate measures to help a person with a disability to access, improve or retain their employment by providing specific grant aid to employers and employees and disability awareness supports which offer funding to private sector employers to provide Disability Awareness Training for staff who work with a colleague who has a disability.

Agencies under the remit of my Department have a number of initiatives in place to help encourage employers to employ persons with disabilities.

The IDA launched an initiative Widening the Talent Pool where the IDA connect client companies with appropriate organisations that offer different opportunities to under-represented potential employees including those with disabilities.

Both Enterprise Ireland and the Local Enterprise Offices work to ensure that its entrepreneurial, mentoring and capability supports are available to all emerging entrepreneurs, including people with a disability. They have backed entrepreneurs and companies led by people with a disability, and companies and entrepreneurs providing innovative solutions for people with a disability.

EI and the LEOs are committed to equality, diversity and inclusion. They have a range of specific programmes and initiatives to increase labour market participation and entrepreneurship among people with a disability which include: Promotion of Entrepreneurship for People with Disabilities. This is a new LEO supported initiative in partnership with Technological University, Dublin (TUD) to host and deliver a new online course 'Entrepreneurship for People with Disabilities'.

This programme is open to anyone who self-identifies as having a disability and wishes to start their own business. This initiative was co-founded and supported by the Open Doors Initiative.

20 places are available on the programme which consists of 12 two-hour lectures delivered online. Applications for the course open on 1 June this year. The programme is supported by AIB and there is no fee for participants. Other partners include, Disability Federation of Ireland, DoTheFinancials.com, Microfinance Ireland and SimVenture.

In addition, TU Dublin are currently developing a set of online resources regarding Entrepreneurship for Persons with Disabilities which will include an eLearning module. These resources will be shared across the 31 LEO offices once they come to hand in early June.

The LEOs have engaged Open Doors to provide Disability Awareness training for LEO staff beginning in April 2024. The objective of this training includes raising disability awareness within the LEOs, broadening staff understanding of disability beyond visible disabilities, exploring the barriers faced by people with disabilities in a work context and providing guidance on supporting a service user with a disability.

I would encourage any person with a disability who would like to explore self-employment to approach their Local Enterprise Office to learn what supports are available to them and their business. The LEO Start Your Own Business (SYOB) programme is available to anyone exploring self-employment as an option. The SYOB programme guides clients through the various aspects of business and business planning. Reasonable accommodations are made on a case-by-case basis for people accessing any of the LEO programmes.

Enterprise Ireland have co-signed a partnership agreement with Open Doors to provides opportunities to some of the marginalised members of society, including persons with a disability. EI has provided mentors for five Open Doors Mentoring programmes since January 2023 which have been a great success for both participants and mentors.

EI recently completed Disability Awareness Training workshops with Employers for Change. In the coming months EI intend to use this partnership to progress the establishment of a work placement programme for persons from marginalised communities, including people with a disability.

Enterprise Ireland also have plans, working in partnership with Open Doors, to develop awareness campaigns and programmes that will utilise success stories of self-employed and entrepreneur role models with a variety of disabilities.

In terms of the workforce of my own Department, we have 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 HR practices in line with equality legislation. My Department is committed to providing reasonable accommodation to staff with disabilities who require this in order to work in this Department. Approximately 7% of our staff have a declared disability.

My Department also regularly participates in the Willing Able Mentoring (WAM) Programme, a scheme we have been involved in since 2007. WAM is a work placement programme which aims to promote access to the labour market for graduates with disabilities and build the capacity of employers to integrate disability into the mainstream workplace. Participating employers collaborate with WAM to offer mentored, paid, work placements for graduates with disabilities. Two recent participants in this programme were successful in securing full time, permanent employment in this Department through a confined competitive process operated by the Public Appointments Service.

My Department has also worked with the OWL (Oireachtas Work and Learn) programme, which offers supported employment opportunity for young adults with intellectual disability. This programme is a partnership of KARE and WALK with the Houses of the Oireachtas supported by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the Public Appointments Service. My Department participated in the OWL programme for the first time in 2022. An OWL graduate commenced employment in May 2022, in a permanent part-time position.

This year, my Department also started a partnership with ‘JAM Card’, to ensure that our service provision is supportive of any service user who might have a hidden disability or communication barrier. The Department’s goal is to become a ‘JAM Card friendly’ organisation over the coming months.