The Employee Retention Grant Scheme is one of four employment support schemes included in the DSP Reasonable Accommodation Fund which were administered by FÁS until December 2011, and subsequently by the Department of Social Protection (DSP) since January 2012, namely:
Work Equipment Adaptation Grant;
Job Interview Grant;
Personal Reader Grant;
Employee Retention Grant.
FÁS did not collate details of numbers of individual applications in these grants, but instead records actual expenditure only against budget for each year. The actual expenditures on Employee Retention Grant Scheme are as follows:
Year
|
Actual Expenditure
|
2007
|
€10,000
|
2008
|
€14,000
|
2009
|
€1,000
|
2010
|
€7,000
|
2011
|
€2,000
|
2012
|
Nil to date
|
The Reasonable Accommodation Fund is demand-led in that expenditure on same is in response to applications received.
In order to increase awareness of employers of these demand led employment supports, DSP commenced a series of Employer Awareness Evenings nationally through the Supported Employment Service (EmployAbility Service) in September 2011 which are still on-going. To date, events have been held in Cork, Dublin, Tralee, Kilkenny, Waterford, Monaghan, Enniscorthy, Carlow, Kildare, Castlebar, Tullamore and Ennis. In addition, the regional management responsibility for the Employee Retention Grant Scheme, along with the Disability Awareness Support Scheme is currently under review by the DSP as both had formerly been administered by the Services to Business Division of FÁS.