Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 1 Mar 1995

Vol. 449 No. 8

Written Answers. - Support for the Disabled.

Helen Keogh

Question:

41 Ms Keogh asked the Minister for Health the plans, if any, he has to introduce measures to address the difficulties experienced by people with disabilities, to assist in the move from social welfare or health board payments into employment, training and education. [2001/95]

Minister for Health (Mr. Noonan,

Limerick East): The main income support scheme operated by my Department for people with disabilities is the disabled person's maintenance allowance (DPMA) scheme. Recipients of this allowance are entitled to earn up to £33.30 per week from employment or training which has been approved by the health board without affecting their entitlement to this allowance. My Department amended the disabled person's maintenance allowance regulations in July, 1994 to ensure that disabled person's maintenance allowance recipients moving into employment or training would have no difficulty coming back on to this allowance if they were unable to continue with the employment or training. I might add that responsibility for the operation and administration of the disabled person's maintenance allowance scheme is transferring to the Department of Social Welfare from July, 1995.

The National Rehabilitation Board (NRB) which is an executive agency of my Department provides an assessment, counselling, vocational guidance and placement service to people with disabilities throughout the country. The NRB administers the European Social Fund (ESF) training budget on behalf of my Department and a total of 3,504 whole-time equivalent training places for people with disabilities were maintained at a cost of £28.466 million in 1994. Training is delivered through a network of over 40 vocational training centres nationwide and a wide variety of vocational and educational training courses are available to trainees. All levels and types of disability are catered for with the ultimate aim of equipping the trainees with the skills necessary to gain employment in the labour market. People participating in these courses are allowed to retain their disabled person's maintenance allowance during the training period.

In regard to employment for people with disabilities, the employment support scheme which is funded by my Department has been very succesful. A feature of this scheme is that the employer receives a subsidy to compensate for the loss of productivity of the employee with a disability. The numbers participating in this scheme have grown steadily since 1990 and at the end of December, 1994 there were 250 people with a disability employed under this scheme at a cost of £584,000. I was pleased to approve an increase in funding of £150,000 for this scheme in 1995.

Another important initiative has been the establishment of the three year pilot programme for the employment of people with disabilities in viable business enterprises. My Department is responsible for overseeing this scheme with the assistance of the Department of Enterprise and Employment. To date six businesses employing over 130 employees with a disability have been grant aided under this scheme. A condition of the scheme is that at least 50 per cent of the employees in any viable business must be people who have a disability themselves. Funding of £2 million is being provided for this scheme in 1995. Employees on both the employment support scheme and the pilot programme for the employment of people with disabilities are also entitled to retain their secondary benefits for a one year period.

I am confident that these measures are making a significant contribution to the improvement of the employment, training and education opportunities of people with disabilities.