Paul Lawless (Mayo, Aontú)
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126. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of people with disabilities currently in employment; the action he is taking to address the low rate of individuals with disabilities in the workforce; and the supports he will put in place to ensure equality for those with disabilities. [61901/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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According to Census 2022, 49.3% of people with disabilities of working age were in employment. My Department provides a range of programmes and schemes to enable access to the workplace for disabled people, with the aim of increasing the employment participation rate of 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 make an appointment to meet with a Designated Disability Employment Personal Advisor to discuss employment and training options. They can access mainstream employment schemes such as Community Employment and Tús as well as referral to tailored supports such as Employability.

My Department launched a new scheme called Work and Access in July 2024. This scheme offers seven supports that addresses barriers to the workplace and make it more accessible. Funding is available for communication supports, work coaches, workplace adaptations as well as disability equality and inclusion training.

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 make it more accessible and flexible. As a result, the minimum hours for the scheme were reduced from 21 to 15 hours. In June this year, we launched the revamped scheme.

Budget 2026 has provided for a further expansion to people who acquire a disability while in employment and to those who transfer from Invalidity Pension to Partial Capacity Benefit and provided for an increase in the subsidy rates.

The Department’s disability-related schemes and employment supports have been structured to support recipients to pursue employment opportunities. Specifically with regard to Disability Allowance the earnings disregard has increased by almost 38% since Budget 2021 from €120 to €165 currently.

This enables those in receipt of Disability Allowance to earn more without having a negative impact on their means tested payment. This means that people can earn up to €165 per week and keep their payment in full and can earn up to €517.60 per week and keep a portion of their payment.

As a result of Budget 2026, people moving from Disability Allowance or Blind Pension to take up work will keep their Fuel Allowance for up to five years, from September 2026. The Back to Work Family Dividend is also being extended to people moving from Disability Allowance or Blind Pension who have children.

The Government is committed to supporting disabled people into work and we recognise that more needs to be done to address the low rate of individuals with disabilities in the workforce. The Programme for Government commits to expanding successful programmes like Work and Access and to work with employers and across Government to improve employment of disabled people.

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

These commitments will be advanced over the lifetime of the Government in light of the prevailing policy and budgetary context.

I trust this clarifies the issue for the Deputy.