Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 20 September 2023
641. Deputy Louise O'Reilly asked the Minister for Social Protection the estimated cost of providing the WALK providing equal employment routes, PEER, employment support service model in all 26 counties for people with disabilities. [40255/23]
View answerWALK PEER is one of 27 projects funded by my Department under the former Ability Programme. The Ability Programme, introduced in June 2018, was a three-year pre-activation programme for young people with disabilities. The total funding for the programme amounted to approximately €16 million and was provided jointly under the European Union’s ESF 2014-2020 Programme for Employability, Inclusion and Learning Operational Programme and the Irish Exchequer. The Ability Programme concluded at the end of August 2021.
Total Ability funding of approximately €641,000 was awarded to WALK PEER over the course of the 3 year Ability programme. If the WALK PEER project were to be replicated on the same scale to an additional 26 counties, based on a simplistic calculation, this would cost €5.5m per year. This figure is based on previous levels of funding to WALK PEER under the former Ability Programme. It does not include set up costs and nor does it factor in a county-by-county analysis i.e. an analysis, for example, of existing service provision by county, demand factors etc. This figure also does not include monitoring and oversight of a national programme. These costs would not be insignificant.
Finally, it was worth noting that the organisation is one of 37 projects currently funded by my Department under a Dormant Accounts Measure to Support the Employment of People with Disabilities which began in September 2021 and runs up to the end of December 2023. The WALK PEER organisation was awarded funding up to €350,000 and is funded as a standalone project under this Dormant Accounts measure and not as a programme in its own right.
I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.
