My Department and agencies under its remit are governed by the Code of Practice for the Employment of People with a Disability in the Irish Civil Service.
My Department is required to provide information annually to the National Disability Authority (NDA) on the number of persons with disabilities employed on 31st December each year in both the Department and in agencies under its aegis.
The NDA has a statutory role in monitoring employment of persons with disabilities in the public sector, arising from Part 5 of the Disability Act 2005, and publishes the statistics provided on its website.
My Department conducted a Disability Staff Census for 2020 to assist monitoring of the number of employees with disabilities, as required under the Disability Act 2005. Almost 10% of staff in my Department self-identified as having a disability as defined by the Act, exceeding the 6% quota in the Comprehensive Strategy for People with Disabilities (2015-2024).
My Department has a strong record of employing persons with disabilities and is strongly committed to the development and implementation of improved measures to promote and support the employment of individuals with disabilities.
My Department is currently participating in the Oireachtas Work Learning Programme (OWL) for persons with intellectual disabilities and has also recruited three graduates with disabilities from the Willing Able Mentoring (WAM) work placement programme which aims to promote access to the labour market for graduates with disabilities and build the capacity of employers to integrate disability into the mainstream workplace. All staff have access to the Department's Disability Liaison Officer who provides additional support to staff with disabilities on an ongoing basis.
Each public body under the aegis of the Department is responsible for ensuring they meet the annual statutory disability target. A Monitoring Committee has been established in my Department to monitor compliance of bodies under the aegis of the Department with Part 5 of the Disability Act, 2005 (Article 48). I am informed that a key objective of the Monitoring Committee is to support the public bodies meet the Government’s public service employment target for persons with disabilities. Below, detailed in tabular form are the statistics gathered and submitted to my Department for the 2020 Part 5 Returns for Public Bodies under the aegis of the Department. I understand these statistics will be published by the NDA in due course.
|
Name of Public Body
|
% (Highest to lowest)
|
|
Crawford Art Gallery
|
10.53%
|
|
Broadcasting Authority of Ireland
|
10.26%
|
|
National Library of Ireland
|
9.09%
|
|
Foras na Gaeilge(North South Body)
|
8.16%
|
|
Ulster Scots Agency (North South Body)
|
7.69%
|
|
Údarás Na Gaeltachta
|
6.90%
|
|
National Gallery of Ireland
|
6.42%
|
|
RTÉ
|
4.88%
|
|
Irish Museum of Modern Art
|
4.76%
|
|
TG4
|
4.55%
|
|
National Museum of Ireland
|
4.00%
|
|
National Concert Hall
|
4.00%
|
|
Sport Ireland
|
3.92%
|
|
Arts Council
|
3.13%
|
|
Chester Beatty Library
|
2.22%
|
|
Fáilte Ireland
|
1.86%
|
|
Screen Ireland
|
0.00%
|
|
Tourism Ireland (North South Body)
|
0.00%
|
Appointments to posts in my Department are normally made from recruitment panels of the Public Appointments Service (PAS). I am informed that my Department actively seeks to accommodate new recruits with disabilities when such persons become available from PAS panels.
