I welcome the research report on the cost of disability in Ireland.
Inclusion is one of the core strategic goals for my Department, and my ambition is to ensure that we provide supports and opportunities for learning to all. This means recognising the needs of vulnerable learners, people who are most marginalised and people with special and additional needs.
The cost of disability can be measured by the costs faced by people with a disability in their day-to-day lives that others in society do not face (the ‘direct costs’ approach). It can also be measured by the amount of additional income a household containing a person with a disability would require to achieve the same standard of living as a comparable household that does not contain a person with a disability (the ‘equivalence’ approach).
In order to get a better understanding of the extent and composition of these costs, and the way they affect people differently, the Department of Social Protection commissioned Indecon International Research Economists to conduct an independent Cost of Disability study.
The Programme for Government contains a commitment to use research into the cost of disability to properly inform the direction of future policy. The publication of the Indecon report last December will enable the development of a whole of government approach to the costs of disability in Ireland. In this regard, the Minister for Social Protection and the Minister for Disabilities, have referred the report to the National Disability Inclusion Strategy Steering Group (NDISSG), as the mechanism through which the issues raised by the report are to be discussed and progressed.
The NDISSG is chaired by the Minister for Disabilities and has representation from Government Departments, agencies and the Disability Stakeholders Group. My Department is represented on the Steering Group and participated in the December meeting where the Cost of Disability in Ireland report was considered.
Consideration of appropriate policy responses to the report’s finding will form a large part of the NDISSG’s work in 2022, where my department will play its part in developing appropriate policy responses.
My department has recently published a number of policy documents which articulate policy responses for key groups, including persons with disabilities. The Further Education and Training Strategy 2020-2024 includes plans to target priority groups who have diverse needs, such as people with disabilities. The 10 year Adult Literacy for Life Strategy (2021-30), which was launched last September, outlines a cross-Government approach to reduce the number of adults in Ireland who have unmet literacy, numeracy and digital skills needs. People with a disability are one of the key target groups within the strategy.
The Action Plan for Apprenticeship (2021-25) was launched in April 2021. One of the five unambiguous objectives in the plan is ‘Apprenticeship for all’, meaning that the profile of the apprenticeship population will more closely reflect the profile of the general population. The explicit ‘deliverables’ underpinning this include an apprenticeship structure that is inclusive in terms of access and delivery.
I intend to publish the Strategic Action Plan for Equity, Participation and Success in Higher Education (2022-2026) in early 2022. The new plan
will include specific supports for persons with disabilities, including those with intellectual disabilities.
I look forward to engaging with the National Disability Inclusion Strategy Steering Group during the course of 2022, to progress policy responses for persons with disabilities.
