National Disability Strategy

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Legislation
Where some improvements in the number of people in this cohort securing employment have been made since the introduction of the National Disability Strategy in 2004 there is still a lot of work that can be done to ensure that they are given an equal chance to participate in the labour market. As part of the National Disability Strategy, the Disability Act 2005 established a statutory basis for an independent assessment of health and social service needs for people with a disability and obliged public bodies to be proactive in employing people with disabilities. This has been somewhat successful with public bodies aiming to take at least 3% of their workforce from the disability group. But 3% is ridiculously low when you see that …show more content…

However the Employment Equality Acts also state that an employer is not obliged to recruit or retain a person who is not fully competent or capable of undertaking the duties attached to a job. The Employment Equality Acts 1998-2015 require employers to take reasonable steps to accommodate the needs of employees and prospective employees with disabilities. Reasonable accommodation can be defined as some modification to the tasks or structure of a job or workplace, which allows the qualified employee with a disability to fully do the job and enjoy equal employment opportunities. This can be as simple as adapting some IT equipment to suit the needs of a specific individual or putting in ramps to facilitate access to a specific area. Others may need more flexible working hours due to chronic pain or tiredness, shorter working weeks or indeed sometimes it is only transport that is needed to enable a person to participate as an equal in the workplace. There is a wealth of knowledge and skills that can be tapped into by private sector organisations if they are just willing to take the time to understand that “disability” does not necessarily mean that a person does not have the ability to …show more content…

Armed with the proper qualifications and excellent Curriculum Vitae many of these individuals apply for jobs, but unfortunately never get past the interview stage. Fergus Finlay points out in an article in the Irish Examiner that people with disabilities are “routinely, and casually, discriminated against when applying for jobs. Especially in a recession when employers can pick and choose, they don’t have to hire employees in respect of whom they might have to make some reasonable accommodation.” He goes on to state that this discrimination is hidden but it prevents these individuals from breaking into the workforce and he states it is as ever-present today is it always was. Indeed Russell et al confirm this in their report “The Experience of Discrimination in Ireland, p. 17”. The report states that “disabled people are much more likely to report work-related discrimination than nondisabled people. This is true of discrimination in work, where twice as many disabled people reported discrimination with 9% disabled versus 4.6% non-disabled. It is also true of looking for work, where more than twice as many disabled people reported experiencing discrimination with 11.4% versus 5.3% non-disabled”

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