My Department is an equal opportunities employer and all recruitment campaigns are conducted in strict compliance with the Codes of Practice set out by the Commission for Public Service Appointments. Codes include the Code of Practice governing the External and Internal Appointments of Persons with Disabilities to Positions in the Irish Civil Service and Certain Public Bodies, which is available at www.cpsa.ie.
Part 5 of the Disability Act 2005 sets out the legal obligations of public service bodies:
- to promote and support the employment of people with disabilities;
- to comply with any statutory Code of Practice;
- to meet a target of 3% of employees with disabilities; and
- to report every year on achievement of these obligations.
As the Deputy will be aware, the National Disability Authority reports on compliance with this 3% target. The following table outlines the latest percentages of staff with disabilities that work in my Department and the bodies under its aegis:
|
Department/Office
|
Percentage of staff with disabilities
|
|
Public Expenditure and Reform
|
5.1%
|
|
State Laboratory
|
5.43%
|
|
Ombudsman
|
3.23%
|
|
Public Appointments Service
|
3.21%
|
|
Office of Public Works
|
3.7%
|
Even though the Institute of Public Administration has an equal opportunities policy, the 3% quota is not being exceeded at the moment. There has not been an advertised competition in relation to the quota as all positions in the Institute are open to suitably qualified applicants irrespective of gender, marital status, family status, sexual orientation, age, disability, race, religion or membership of the traveller community.
As the Special EU Programmes Body is a North South Body, the quota of 3% does not apply. Whilst the Body does not work towards a quota regarding the employment of persons with disabilities, 3.16% of the SEUPB’s workforce are regarded as employees with a disability. The Body has not had any specific advertised competitions in relations to the 3% quota.
There is an obligation in the Comprehensive Employment Strategy for People with Disabilities (CES) for a dedicated competition for people with disabilities to be met in the future and to increase the quota from 3% to 6%. This is being considered by a cross-party group chaired by Mr Fergus Finlay and my Department is a member of the Group.
Currently, recruitment to the Civil and Public Service is based on the merit principle. Although organisations can conduct their own recruitment, the Public Appointments Service (PAS) carries out much of the recruitment for the Civil Service and also recruits for some parts of the wider Public Service. There are no campaigns advertised at present which are confined to people with a disability. The approach of PAS to recruitment is to seek to ensure that, in every aspect of their engagement with candidates, each individual candidate is enabled to perform to the best of their ability across the entire range of recruitment campaigns run by PAS. In keeping with this core value, PAS provides a range of accommodations for people with disabilities in the recruitment and assessment processes for all public service campaigns for which they recruit. PAS also conducts equality-proofing all of the new assessment and selection techniques used as part of those recruitment campaigns.
