Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Thursday, 12 Dec 1996

Vol. 472 No. 8

Written Answers. - Disabilities Report.

Helen Keogh

Ceist:

112 Ms Keogh asked the Minister for Enterprise and Employment the process by which he will consider and implement the recommendations of the Commission on the Status of People with Disabilities which concern his Department's responsibility for the training of people with disabilities. [24195/96]

Minister for Enterprise and Employment (Mr. R. Bruton)

The Government has agreed to the establishment of a monitoring committee and an interdepartmental task force to monitor the implementation of the commission's proposals, and to consider the various issues from a Government standpoint, respectively, and I expect that my Department will be represented and making its views known on both of these groups.

I am not convinced of the merits of the commission's recommendation that overall responsibility for the training of people with disabilities should be transferred to my Department.

FÁS works actively with the National Rehabilitation Board at local, regional and national level and it is FÁS policy to encourage and promote the integration of people with disabilities into training and employment, wherever practical, through its extensive range of labour market intervention measures. Unemployment eligibility criteria have been waived in a number of programmes for persons referred to FÁS by the NRB. However, the needs of people with severe disabilities are so wide-ranging, and so clearly dependent on the medical and physical implications of their disabilities, that it appears there would be significant problems in separating their employment support from the wide range of supports which they require in other aspects of their lives.

I will shortly be launching a White Paper on Human Resources Development which will include a number of measures designed to further facilitate the integration of people with less severe disabilities into mainstream training and employment.