Ken O'Flynn (Cork North-Central, Independent Ireland Party)
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480. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if he is engaging with the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth regarding employment opportunities for individuals in receipt of a disability payment; to confirm the nature of this engagement with potential employers; to provide statistical data on the number of individuals in receipt of a disability payment who are currently employed; and the protections in place within the workforce for individuals in receipt of a disability payment. [13793/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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My Department is working closely with the Department of Children, Disability and Equality to develop the next National Disability Strategy and in particular on a pillar dedicated to improving employment for disabled people. We are joint leads for this pillar with colleagues from the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment.

Through our nationwide network of Intreo centres and the EmployAbility Service, my Department regularly engages with employers to increase employment opportunities for people with disabilities.

My Department has Employer Engagement Teams that work in Intreo centres nationwide to support employers through all stages of the recruitment process. This support includes advertising vacancies free of charge, matching employers with the best candidates, scheduling and providing facilities where necessary, and organising Job Fairs.

My Department recognises the additional difficulties people with disabilities experience in securing and maintaining employment in the open labour market and contracts for the provision of the Employability Service to help address these difficulties. The Employability Service is a supported employment service for people with disabilities to provide both pre-employment and in-employment support and assistance and a recruitment and support service for employers. The service operates on the basis of voluntary engagement and is open to all social welfare claimants and those not in receipt of a payment, subject to Departmental approval.

The Employment and Youth Engagement Charter, launched in 2024, is a government initiative to help those who are at risk of not moving into employment easily, targeted at young people and other priority groups, including people with disabilities. It is one of the commitments included in government’s national employment strategy “Pathways to Work 2021-2025”. The Employment and Youth Engagement Charter provides a framework to collaborate with employers to support and inspire young jobseekers, people with disabilities and other priority groups to build their knowledge, skills and experience to enhance their employability.

My Department provides a range of income supports to people with disabilities. People on these payments can take up employment and may keep their payment in full or in part. There are nearly 18,000 people on Disability Allowance or Blind Pension in employment, with over 7,900 of them still receiving their full weekly payment. People on Invalidity Pension who wish to return to work may be eligible to transfer to Partial Capacity Benefit. In January 2025, there were over 2,900 people in employment on the payment.

The Employment Equality Acts 1998-2015 aim to promote equality, ban discrimination across nine grounds, including disability, and make sure suitable facilities are available for disabled people in accessing employment, advancing employment and taking part in training.

The Acts prohibit direct and indirect discrimination or harassment related to any of the discriminatory grounds, sexual harassment, and victimisation. Discrimination on the ground of disability means being treated less favourably than someone who does not have a disability, or someone who does not have the same disability.

The legislation requires employers to take reasonable steps to accommodate the needs of employees and prospective employees with disabilities. This is known as ‘reasonable accommodation’, and includes enabling someone to access employment, to participate and advance in a job or to attend training. An employer is not obliged to hire someone who is not competent to carry out the duties of a role. However, if someone cannot undertake certain duties because of a disability, the employer must still assess whether they can be reasonably accommodated.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.