Barry Heneghan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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148. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the employment rate of people with disabilities across the civil service. [6434/25]

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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In 2022, the most recent year for published data, the reported rate for the employment of people with disabilities in the Civil Service was 5.7% (2022). This is an increase from 5.4% in the previous year, and it exceeded the legislative target at that time (3%). This is the most recent published data available from the National Disability Authority (NDA).

The Disability Act 2005 compels public bodies to promote and support the employment of persons with disabilities. In line with the legislation, the statutory target for the employment of people with disabilities in public sector organisations increased at the beginning of this year from 4.5% to 6%.

My Department is responsible for the Monitoring Committee for civil service Departments and Offices to ensure compliance with the Act. The Committee collates annual qualitative and quantitative data from all civil service departments and offices from the preceding year and returns to the NDA for annual compliance reporting. The data includes the total number of employees and number of employees that disclosed a disability per organisation. In addition, the returns require information on reasonable accommodations and other measures that organisations have put in place to create an inclusive workplace culture that supports employees to share their disability status with their employers and to access the supports they need to do their jobs successfully. It is anticipated that the 2023 data will be published by the NDA in the coming weeks. Data collection for 2024 is currently underway across the Civil Service.

A key priority for my Department in line with commitments under the Better Public Services Strategy 2030 is promote an inclusive and diverse working environment. In 2025, we will continue to expand inclusive pathways to employment for disabled people through the Oireachtas Work Learning (OWL) and Willing Able Mentoring (WAM) programmes, enhance learning and development opportunities to raise disability awareness, modernise our disability policies with a particular focus on the provision of reasonable accommodation and enhance support structures that promote inclusion with a reform of the role of the Disability Liaison Officer.