Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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389. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the supports available from his Department to help people with disabilities into employment, and to sustain employment; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40620/25]

Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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404. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the supports available from his Department to help people with disabilities into employment, and to sustain employment; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40619/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 389 and 404 together.

My Department's Intreo service is a single point of contact for all employment and income supports in the State. Disabled people can access mainstream employment schemes such as Community Employment and Tús as well as referral to tailored supports such as Employability. This is a service that offers a professional job-matching service, on-going support and advice and information on employment supports for people with disabilities.

In July 2022, my Department launched Early Engagement. The scheme aims to proactively engage with disabled people in the early stages of disability or illness about options for education, training or employment. Over 31,000 people have been contacted by Intreo staff who have received disability awareness training. Over 3,900 referrals have been made for further education or employment supports since the scheme launched.

In July 2024, my Department launched a new scheme called Work and Access. This scheme offers seven supports to improve access in the workplace for disabled people. Funding is available for communication supports, work equipment, workplace adaptations and training. In-work support is available under the scheme through which disabled employees can avail of continued support and assistance to help them sustain employment. Supports are available for both the business premises and remote workplaces.

In December 2023, my Department established the WorkAbility programme. It is co-financed with the EU Employment, Inclusion, Skills and Training programme. It aims to support people with disabilities into employment through 57 local, regional and national projects. The programme aims to support over 13,000 disabled people over its lifetime.

The Wage Subsidy Scheme supports employers to hire people with disabilities through a subsidy. In August 2024, my Department published a review of the scheme to make it more accessible and flexible to people with disabilities and their employers. Amongst the resulting changes were a reduction of the minimum hours for the scheme from 21 to 15 hours, and an expansion of the scheme was expanded to those on Partial Capacity Benefit and to the community and voluntary sector. An additional €3.7 million has been allocated to the scheme. Last month, I launched the revamped scheme together with the Taoiseach, Minister Foley, and Minister of State Naughton. A media campaign was also launched to raise awareness of this scheme which is very beneficial for employers and employees.

In the Programme for Government we are committed to working with employers and across Government to improve employment of people with disabilities and to expanding successful programmes like WorkAbility and Employability. In addition, the Government has prioritised the development of a New National Disability Strategy which is a cross-government initiative. There will be an employment pillar, and a key feature of this strategy will be improving employment outcomes for people with disabilities. My officials are actively contributing to this strategy with the Department of Children, Disability and Equality and others.