Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 8 December 2020
214. Deputy Gary Gannon asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the percentage or number of staff working with a disability within his Department and the agencies under his aegis in 2018, 2019 and 2020; and the actions being undertaken by his Department to actively recruit and retain persons with disabilities. [42149/20]
View answerThe details requested by the Deputy in respect of my Department, the Office of Government Procurement which is also part of my Department, and the bodies under the aegis of my Department are set out in the following table. The Deputy should note that the percentages noted only reflect employees that have declared a disability, given that the declaration of a disability is voluntary.
|
- |
2020 |
2019 |
2018 |
|
Department of Public Expenditure and Reform |
The 2020 Disability Staff Census will be carried out in mid-December. |
3.8% |
4.3% |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Office of Government Procurement |
6.6% |
4.8% |
4.9% |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Bodies under the aegis |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Office of Public Works |
The 2020 Disability Staff Census will be carried out on 31st December. |
3.8% |
3.5% |
|
National Shared Services Office |
4% |
3% |
3% |
|
Public Appointments Service |
The 2020 Disability Staff Census figures are not yet available. |
8.3% |
8.2% |
|
State Laboratory |
6.6% |
4% |
4.2% |
|
Office of the Ombudsman |
The 2020 Disability Staff Census will be carried out on 31st December. |
4.3% |
7.6% |
|
Regulator of the National Lottery |
0% |
0% |
0% |
More broadly, the Civil Service is strongly committed to equality of opportunity for all individuals, in all of its recruitment and employment practices. This commitment is demonstrated and documented with key Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (ED&I) actions in the:
- People Strategy for the Civil Service 2017-2020 ;
- Our Public Service 2020 ;
- The Programme for Government (particularly on disability and migrant integration);
- Comprehensive Employment Strategy for People with Disabilities (2015-2024); and
- Migrant Integration Strategy.
In line with the above commitments, my Department has established an ED&I Working Group to review the Civil Service ED&I policy and how appropriate data insights might better track progress against ED&I targets. All Government Departments and Offices have a core role to ensure that ED&I is deeply embedded in their organisations.
The Public Appointment Service (PAS), which is a body under the aegis of my Department, is the lead recruiter for appointments at all levels to the Civil Service. PAS, working in tandem with my Department, is committed to examining alternative recruitment routes to ensure that we have a civil service workforce that is broadly representative of the modern Ireland that we serve.
PAS has established a dedicated ED&I function and a core focus is on attraction and to anticipate/accommodate the needs of candidates from the application process right through to assignment with feedback elicited through a number of focus groups. The end-to-end process for persons with a disability has, for example, been recently reviewed from candidates’ experience with the assistance of external consultants.
Further positive examples of how my Department, working alongside key stakeholders including PAS, has recently been involved in promoting employment pathways for persons with a disability include the Oireachtas Work Learning (OWL) Programme, which is our first permanent pathway to employment through an internship scheme, and the AHEAD Willing Able and Mentoring (WAM) Programme.
The OWL Programme is an applied learning, development and socialisation programme for adults with an intellectual disability which was launched as a pilot programme in September 2018. It is facilitated by the Houses of the Oireachtas Service in collaboration with two sponsor organisations, KARE and WALK. The goal of the Programme is to provide trainees with the skills, knowledge and ability to gain meaningful employment via the unique opportunity to gain practical work experience, as well as accredited learning over an 11 month period. Since we created our first permanent pathway to employment through an internship scheme, over a quarter of the initial OWL interns have since gone on to secure permanent civil service employment.
The WAM Programme offers graduates with a disability a six-month work placement in either the private sector or Civil Service. Since 2015, WAM has placed over 490 graduates, of which 47% (229) have been placements in the Civil Service across 32 Government Departments or Agencies. PAS conducts the recruitment element of the process on behalf of AHEAD in the case of placements in the Civil Service. PAS and my Department, in conjunction with AHEAD, are currently exploring the feasibility of a confined competition to create a permanent path for employment in the civil service for WAM graduates, upon successful completion of their work placement.
In terms of retention of staff with disabilities, my Department’s HR Strategy Unit, along with its Disability Liaison Officer (DLO), support new members of staff with a disability or existing staff who acquire a disability. In terms of raising awareness about disability within my Department, a number of initiatives are in place:
- The Diversity and Inclusion sub-group within the PERspectives group, a cross-grade, cross-divisional staff forum to support the Department’s People@PER Strategy, contributes to the cultivation of a diverse and inclusive culture across the Department;
- To mark the 2019 International Day of Persons with Disabilities (3 December), all staff in the Department were invited to complete the online Disability Equality Training offered by the National Disability Authority (NDA). A presentation to raise awareness about autism was delivered by AsIAm (Ireland’s largest autism charity) to mark the 2020 observance;
- New hires in my Department receive a PDF of the Code of Practice for the Employment of People with a Disability in the Irish Civil Service (2007), as well as a welcome letter from the Department’s Disability Liaison Office (DLO) along with FAQs on Disability prepared by the National Disability Authority (NDA); and
- The induction of new hires in the Department includes a presentation and Q&A session with the Disability Liaison Officer.
