Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 8 December 2020
403. Deputy Jennifer Whitmore asked the Minister for Social Protection the progress made to date in meeting the commitment in the programme for Government to fine-tune and expand targeted employment schemes such as the wage subsidy scheme and the Ability programme to help more persons with disabilities stay in the workforce; and the targets and target dates she is working to in relation to this commitment. [41848/20]
View answerIn addition to providing income supports, my Department provides a wide range of employment-related supports for both jobseekers with disabilities and employers seeking to employ a jobseeker with a disability or to retain an existing employee who has or who acquires a disability.
The Wage Subsidy Scheme (WSS) is an employment support to private sector employers, the objective of which is to encourage employers to employ people with disabilities and thereby increase the numbers of people with disabilities participating in the open labour market. The scheme provides financial incentives to private sector employers to hire people with a disability for between 21 and 39 subsidised hours per week under a contract of employment. The basic rate of subsidy is €5.30 per hour giving a total annual subsidy available of €10,748 per annum based on a 39 hour week.
The WSS is a demand-led scheme and there are currently 1,604 private sector employers availing of the subsidy in respect of 2,615 participant employees. The scheme was administered on a legacy FÁS paper-based system until last year. The scheme has now been moved to an IT platform and this has allowed for greater data collection and improved control activities to be carried out.
As part of business improvement processes, payments to WSS employers moved to an online system at the end of February 2020. A review of the Wage Subsidy Scheme is also planned and will commence in early 2021.
The Ability Programme was introduced in June 2018 and is a pre-activation programme for young people with disabilities. The funding for this programme will amount to around €16 million over a three year period and is being co-funded by the EU and the Irish Exchequer under the EU's ESF Programme for Employability, Inclusion and Learning (PEIL) Operational Programme 2014-2020. The programme will support over 2,600 young people with disabilities between 15 and 29 years of age and will continue to run up to July 2021. Pobal has been contracted by the Department to manage the programme.
The aim of the Ability Programme is to help bring young people with disabilities who are not work-ready closer to the labour market through engagement in training and personal development activities, which would be followed by an incremental exposure to work. The programme is being delivered by 27 community and voluntary groups from around the country, selected on foot of a competitive process. The projects being funded have been designed to assist young people in their transition from school to further education and employment. This is being undertaken using person-centred, case management approaches that support participants to achieve their desired employment goals.
An on-going programme evaluation, aimed at evaluating the extent to which the programme has met its stated policy objectives, is being undertaken. A contractor has been appointed by Pobal to undertake this work. The evaluation will also explore the effectiveness of different approaches and measures applied in bringing young people with disabilities, who are not work-ready, closer to the labour market in addition to examining the range of impacts on the participants of the programme. The evaluation will be a mix of qualitative and quantitative methods, which will be supported by an analysis of quantitative data collected by Pobal. The evaluation is being conducted over the duration of the programme and it will conclude in June 2021.
I can assure the Deputy that I will continue to seek to improve the employment-related supports provided by my Department for people with disabilities.
