Barry Heneghan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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226. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the need for cross departmental coordination with the Department for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth and the Department for Social Protection to tackle the issues of barriers to employment for people with disabilities and the practices of the civil service in dealing with disability benefits once in employment. [8941/25]

Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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The need for collaboration across government when it comes to removing barriers for the participation of people with disabilities, including accessing freely chosen employment, is widely acknowledged. Officials from my department have been fully engaged with officials in both the Department of Children, Disability and Equality and the Department of Social Protection in the development of the upcoming National Disability Strategy.

However, any issues arising with disability benefits once a disabled person takes up employment fall within the remit of my colleague, the Minister for Social Protection.

Barry Heneghan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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227. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment to provide an expected timeline on the development of a code of practice, which was contained within the Programme for Government; and how the code will support the hiring of workers with a disability. [8942/25]

Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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I am fully committed to progressing work on this and I have already directed work to begin on the design of a voluntary Code of Practice with the aim of encouraging employers to hire people with disabilities. Some businesses and state agencies already have best practice procedures in place and I believe there is significant potential for the sharing of best practice procedures, approaches to reasonable accommodation for workers and job candidates with disabilities, and providing greater clarity and confidence to employers when it comes to the hiring of people with disabilities. I also believe that there is also a role for a Code which will have a particular focus on neurodiversity, learning from excellent examples already being applied in various private sector settings.

I am looking forward to steady progress. Engagement with stakeholders has already commenced and further preparatory work and consultations will follow.