Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 26 July 2022
2151. Deputy Holly Cairns asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the way that his Department and public bodies and agencies under his remit met their obligations under section 42 of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission Act 2014 in 2021, including the way that relevant policies and actions are monitored and the way that the obligation is reflected in their annual reports. [41363/22]
View answerSection 42 of the Irish Rights and Equality Commission Act 2014 requires all Public Bodies to have regard to the need to -
(a) Eliminate discrimination
(b) Promote equality of opportunity and treatment of its staff and the persons to whom it provides services and
(c) protect the human rights of its members, staff and the persons to whom it provides services.
The Department is committed to promoting and maintaining an inclusive and diverse workplace for all employees and values each employee both for who they are and what they contribute to the work of the Department.
The Department’s Diversity, Equality and Inclusion Policy, which was launched in 2018, builds on our core values in these areas.
In line with this policy, the Department recently launched an Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Advocacy team. The mission of the team which is representative of the diverse nature and regional locations of my Department's staff is to "To celebrate the diversity of our people and promote equality of opportunity and respect for diversity in all aspects of the Department’s business. To promote, champion and foster a work environment where our people are free to be their authentic selves, be creative, thrive and flourish, while making a valuable contribution to the Department’s goals."
This Advocacy team, which was launched by my Secretary General and is led by a member of my Department's management team, will monitor progress on the objectives and actions set out in our Diversity, Equality and Inclusion policy.
The Department is also committed to ensuring wide accessibility to all our services and participates in a wide range of interdepartmental working groups within the social inclusion area.
The Department's current Statement of Strategy 2021-2024 sets out as one of our core values "A strong commitment to diversity, inclusion and the fair and equal treatment of all." These core values are embraced in respect of both our own employees and clients of the Department who avail of our wide range of services.
The Department is a long time supporter of providing employment opportunities for persons with disabilities and has participated for many years in the Willing Able Mentoring (WAM) Programme. This programme provides a six month paid and mentored work placement for graduates with a disability. Many former participants of the programme have gone on to secure permanent employment in the Civil Service.
Following the launch of the Oireachtas Work Learning (OWL) programme by the Ceann Comhairle in September 2018, my Department has collaborated with the Houses of the Oireachtas to provide learning opportunities for trainees on this programme. The OWL programme is a learning, development and socialisation programme for young adults with an intellectual disability. The programme aims to provide a real and applied learning experience to the participants in a safe and secure work environment, to support them in developing the skills which will lead them to access paid employment in the open labour market.
A confined recruitment competition for permanent part time posts across the Civil and Public Sector for graduates from the OWL programme took place in December 2021. This competition, which was supported by the Public Appointments Service (PAS) and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (DPER) was confined to OWL graduates who had completed the 2019/2020 OWL programme. Many of the graduates were successful in securing permanent employment in the Civil Service and I am delighted to say that we recently welcomed one of the OWL graduates to a permanent post in my Department.
The Department's Disability Liaison Officer (DLO) fosters awareness of equality and disability issues among staff and provides advice, support and guidance to staff. The Disability Liaison Officer also facilitates reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities to ensure each person has equal opportunities for training and career progression throughout their time in my Department.
The Department has focused on gender balance initiatives since 2011, monitors its gender pay gap and has seen a decrease in this gap from 20.5% in 2013 to 11.9% in 2021.
Since 2019, the Department has had an active LGBTI+ staff network in place. My Department celebrates Pride in June each year and on Saturday 25th June last, a number of staff from my Department, including members of my senior management team joined with 1200 plus staff from across the Civil and Public Service to participate in the Dublin Pride Parade to celebrate our LGBTI+ colleagues and the LGBTI+ community.
In recent months, the Department has joined with the Civil Service colleagues on the development of a Pilot Civil Service Internship Programme to provide employment opportunities for members of the Traveller and Roma communities. Recruitment for this programme, which is led by the Public Appointments Service (PAS) and the Department of Justice has commenced recently and my Department has made three posts available for successful candidates on this programme.
We aim to ensure that the needs of all its customers, including persons with disabilities are met and that the rights of equal treatment are upheld in the delivery of services.
In accordance with Section 26(2) of the Disability Act 2005, two Access Officers have been appointed within my Department to provide assistance, support, advice and guidance to persons with disabilities in accessing services provided by my Department when requested and generally to act as a point of contact for people wishing to access such services.
The move to the www.gov.ie portal enabled my Department to redesign its website to comply with the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) and the National Disability Authority (NDA) guidelines, ensuring the website's content is at a suitable reading comprehension level for all.
The Department has also commissioned a digital recording of all its schemes and services to assist customers with reading difficulties; supplied documents in Braille to assist visually impaired customers; and provided Irish Sign Language interpretation services for onsite meetings with customers when requested.
All actions and initiatives in this very important area are included in my Department's annual report, which is published each year.
The matter of the fulfilment of obligations under Section 42 of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission Act by the State Agencies under the aegis of my Department is an operational matter for the Agencies themselves and I will ask the Agencies to respond directly to the Deputy on this matter.
