As a policy, my Department is committed to employing people with disabilities as members of staff and to taking all reasonable measures to ensure that people with disabilities have the necessary facilities and supports in place to enable them to carry out their work effectively. The Department is committed to the creation of a working environment in which all staff, including staff with disabilities, are treated equally. The Department's equality officer provides regular training and awareness courses on equality matters, including disability, to all staff throughout the Department. The Department's disability liaison officer is responsible for the pre-placement assessment of any special needs of people with disabilities and for liaising with serving staff who have disabilities. The Department intends to highlight European Year of People with Disabilities later on this year with the launch of the Department's equality action programme under the auspices of its partnership equality subgroup.
The Department encourages the employment of people with disabilities by operating an equal opportunities employer policy. In addition, the Department specifically targets the employment of people with disabilities through taking staff from panels arising out of confined competitions held by the Office of the Civil Service and Local Appointments Commissioners that are specifically for people with disabilities.
The Department regularly monitors the number of staff with a disability employed in the Department and in bodies under the aegis of the Department with a view to ensuring that commitments under the Government policy to employ a minimum of 3% of staff with a disability are being met. The most recent statistics, compiled this month, show that 3.16% of the workforce of the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources are people with a disability. Of the 50 bodies under the aegis of the Department, 2.94% of the workforce fall within that category.
