asked the Minister for Health if he will state in detail the training courses which his Department provide for blind people to enable them to obtain suitable employment.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers - Training Courses for Blind.
4.
Under the placement service for the blind and partially sighted operated by the National Council for the Blind of Ireland on behalf of my Department, a number of training courses for employment of the visually-handicapped are provided.
The course which has produced the greatest number of posts in open employment to date is the training course in switchboard telephony provided by the national council at their headquarters in Dublin.
In certain cases, where the requisite facilities are not available in this country, places are secured for the blind persons concerned on appropriate courses in Britain, such as vocational rehabilitation and industrial training courses. Some promising blind students have also attended longerterm specialist courses abroad, for example for qualification as physiotherapist.
The placement service of the National Council for the Blind of Ireland have also obtained the cooperation of other organisations in this country catering for the handicapped. Accordingly, the training facilities of those organisations have been made available, as appropriate, to blind and partially sighted persons, resulting in a number of placements as shorthand-typist, dictaphone-typist, and in factory employment generally.
The Board of Employment of the Blind, a semi-state body under the aegis of my Department, employ about 60 blind male workers and provide training in the manufacture of baskets, mats, mattresses, upholstery and similar products.