Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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117. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection to outline any plans there are for work activation and disability access to work, including any improvements or streamlining planned for schemes such as the reasonable accommodation scheme and the wage subsidy scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [50111/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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My Department provides a range of employment supports to facilitate access to the workplace for disabled people.

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 on employment supports for disabled people.

In July 2022, my Department launched Early Engagement. This aims to proactively engage with disabled people in the early stages of disability or illness about options for education, training or employment. Over 33,000 people have been contacted and over 4,300 customers have been referred to employment and further training opportunities. Engagement with the scheme is entirely voluntary.

In July 2024, my Department launched a new scheme called Work and Access following a review of the Reasonable Accommodation Fund and Disability Awareness Support Scheme. The review recommended to merge the two schemes into a single, flexible scheme and to expand and improve the supports offered under the new scheme. The new scheme now offers seven supports to improve access to the workplace for disabled people. Funding is available for communication supports, work equipment, workplace adaptations and training. A media campaign ran last year to raise awareness surrounding the new scheme and my officials have been promoting the scheme around the country.

In December 2023, my Department established the WorkAbility programme - it is co-financed with the EU Employment, Inclusion, Skills, and Training Programme. This programme aims to support disabled people 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 disabled people through a subsidy. In August 2024, my Department published a review of the scheme to update the scheme and make it more accessible to disabled people and their employers. As a result, the minimum hours for the scheme were reduced from 21 to 15 hours. The scheme was expanded to some of those on Partial Capacity Benefit and to the community and voluntary sector. In June this year, we launched the reformed scheme. A media campaign followed the launch.

Notwithstanding these improvements, the Government recognises that more needs to be done to support disabled people into employment. The Programme for Government commits to review the minimum hours requirement under the Wage Subsidy Scheme and examine an increase to the payment rate. It also commits to expanding successful programmes like the new Work and Access scheme.

In addition, the Government recently launched the National Human Rights Strategy for Disabled People 2025-2030. This strategy prioritises a cross-government approach. My Department, alongside the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment will lead the employment pillar, focused on improving access to the workplace for disabled people.

These commitments will be advanced over the lifetime of the Government in the context of the annual budget process and in light of the resources available.