In line with our commitments under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Comprehensive Employment Strategy for People with Disabilities (2015-2024) (“CES”), the Programme for Government commits to an increase from 3% to 6% in the number of people with disabilities in employment in the civil and public service.
Responsibility for reporting on overall compliance against employment disability targets in the public service under Part 5 of the Disability Act 2005 rests with the National Disability Authority (NDA).
Each year, the Disability Liaison Officers in each Government Department and Office undertakes a confidential voluntary annual census in which staff are asked to declare if they have a disability. Officials in my Department then collate figures in respect of all Government Departments and Offices that are mainly staffed by Civil Servants and shares this data with the NDA to assist with their analysis.
Figures in relation to the wider public service are collected directly from the public bodies concerned by the National Disability Authority and published in their Annual Report.
For the Civil Service, I am pleased to be able to confirm to the Deputy that there have been year-on-year increases in the number of Civil Servants that have declared a disability and we have made considerable progress towards the minimum target of 6%:
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31 Dec 2017
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4.5%
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31 Dec 2018
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4.6%
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31 Dec 2019
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5.1%
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The figures at 31 December 2020 are currently in the process of being collated.
It is likely that these figures understate the number of Civil Servants with a disability.
Officials from my Department, along with other Government Departments/Offices and Public Service employers, participate with advocates from the disability sector on the CES Implementation Group that is chaired by Mr Fergus Finlay and coordinated by the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth.
There are many positive examples of how the Civil Service, working alongside key stakeholders including the Public Appointments Service, has been involved in successfully promoting employment pathways for persons with a disability in line with our commitments under the Comprehensive Employment Strategy. These include, for example:
Willing Able Mentoring (WAM) Programme
In partnership with AHEAD, this offers graduates with a disability a 6 month mentored paid work placement.
Since 2005, WAM has placed over 490 graduates, of which 47% (230) have been placements in the Civil Service across 33 Civil Service Departments/Offices.
Oireachtas Work Learning (OWL) Programme
OWL is an 11 month applied learning, development and socialisation programme for adults with an intellectual disability that 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.
6 OWL graduates from the initial Programme were subsequently successful in taking up permanent and part-time positions in the Houses of the Oireachtas and the Public Appointments Service.
Both of these Programmes have been successful due to the strong links developed by Civil Service employers with NGOs concerned. They provide a model by which disability initiatives might be leveraged to create a permanent pathway for employment in the Civil Service and wider Public Service for people with a disability. These Programmes will be further developed in conjunction with Public Appointments Service (PAS), as the principal recruiter for the Civil Service.
