I thank you for inviting me to be here today. My name is Haydn Hammersley. I represent the European Disability Forum based in Brussels, Belgium, an umbrella organisation of persons with disabilities that defends the interests of over 100 million persons with disabilities in Europe.
In this brief opening statement I will highlight some findings from a recent report we conducted into the employment situation of persons with disabilities in the 27 EU member states. The report allowed us to compare the situation in different countries using data from official sources such as EUROSTAT, which are collected in collaboration with national statistics offices. In our findings, it was quite interesting that Ireland stood out as a country that still has a lot of difficulty integrating persons with disabilities into the open labour market. I can quickly show statistically what this looks like and how Ireland compares with other member states.
I will begin with employment rates of persons with disabilities, as that is the best place to start. In the EU, on average, the employment rate of the general population is around 76%. On average, for persons with disabilities it is just under 51%. However, the reality varies significantly from one member state to another. Two member states scored the worst in this respect. These countries are Greece and Ireland, both of which have an employment rate of only 32.6% on average for the disabled population, according to EUROSTAT. Whereas Greece has issues with employment more generally, it is not so much the case with Ireland. Ireland’s general employment rate is actually above the EU average according to EU statistics. This explains why, as well as having the joint lowest employment rate of persons with disabilities, according to EUROSTAT figures, Ireland also has the EU’s largest disability employment gap, this is to say, the biggest difference in percentage points between the employment rates of persons with and without disabilities. In Ireland, the employment rate of persons with disabilities is 38.6 percentage points lower than that of people without disabilities.
Data from EUROSTAT also show us that the proportion of persons with disabilities in full-time employment is lower still. This means that many of the people who show up in the data I just mentioned, as working, are actually not earning enough to make ends meet. On this issue, women are much more heavily impacted than men. While only 23% of men with disabilities in Ireland are in full-time employment, which is the fifth lowest rate in the EU, when it comes to women with disabilities only 15% are in full-time employment. That is the fourth lowest rate for full-time employment in the EU.
The European Institute for Gender Equality also shows us some interesting information when it comes to the disability wage gap in Europe. Typically, in almost every EU member state, the mean equivalised income of women with disabilities is lower than that of men with disabilities. Then, the income of both men and women with disabilities is lower than that of women without disabilities which, in turn, is on average lower than that of men without disabilities. Ireland is a slight exception in this area, as the data suggest that men with disabilities in Ireland have, on average, a lower mean equivalised net income per year than women with disabilities.
At this point it is worth pointing out that we conducted another study in 2020, again using data from EUROSTAT, which found that the risk of poverty and social exclusion for persons with disabilities in Ireland was higher than anywhere else in western Europe. It was topped within the EU only by the Baltic states and Bulgaria. Ireland's poverty rates for persons with disabilities were therefore higher than in such countries as Romania and Greece. The data suggested that 38.1% of persons with disabilities in Ireland were at risk of poverty and social exclusion at the time of the report’s publication in 2020.
While our study highlights some of the main reasons for unemployment of persons with disabilities in general, we do not yet have a clear insight into why persons with disabilities in Ireland struggle more to enter the labour market than their counterparts in other EU member states. This, I recommend, is a question probably best addressed by national or local organisations that know the Irish context better than we do in Brussels. What I can say is that often the main issues we see preventing people from entering the labour market in Europe as a whole are the following: the loss or progressive reduction of disability allowance when a person starts working or earns over a certain amount.
If I am not mistaken, in Ireland we see some flexibility in this area, which is to be commended. However, we still see people starting to lose their allowance or having it cut after a certain income threshold. We also see many employers being resistant to offer adjustments in the workplace or to the job description that would enable a person to better do their job. We usually refer to this process as reasonable accommodation. It is guaranteed as a right under EU law but it is very poorly understood and implemented in the member states.
I will finish shortly with this opening statement. Another issue is the mismatch we often see between the skills required by the current labour market and those that many persons with disabilities have learned during their education. This refers not only to things such as digital skills but other forms of vocational skills as well. Across Europe, we see a need for far more investment to link education to the needs of the labour market.
On top of this, although I could mention many things, we see, quite simply, many cases of discrimination against persons with disabilities in the recruitment process due to misconceptions about the abilities, skills and commitment of persons with disabilities.
With this, I conclude. I will stay with the committee and I am happy to answer any questions members might have to the best of my ability.