People with Disabilities in Ireland
4th Floor Jervis House
Jervis Street
Dublin 1
Telephone: 01 87 21 74 4
Fax: 01 87 21 77 1
Email: info@pwdi.ie
Tuesday 20th April, 2006.
The National Supported Employment Programme operated by FÁS, originally designed for people with significant disabilities, is instead benefiting people with the least significant disabilities who are almost "job ready", according to (NAME COUNTY) Network of People with Disabilities in Ireland (PwDI), part of the national body representing all people with disabilities.
In a submission to the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment for the development of its "sectoral plan" under the national disability strategy, PwDI calls for "far more flexibility in this programme for it to be genuinely inclusive."
Referring to the overall plan it says:
"In its current form, the scope of the plan is too narrow as it does not take into account the totality of needs of people with disabilities and does not reflect the degree of flexibility required to meet those needs. Neither does it reflect in definitive terms the outputs, that is, the planned programme of delivery in terms of numbers of people trained and equipped over a specific timeframe," it says.
The submission states that to genuinely facilitate and improve access to vocational training and employment opportunities for people with disabilities the Department's focus "needs to be backed by a commitment which permeates the entire Department's culture and informs its approach to planning and service delivery."
It identifies a number of "barriers to choice" that need to be dismantled:
. Leaving disabled parking bays free
. Offering first or last appointments
. Listening attentively
. Giving enough information in appropriate format and level
. Providing disability awareness training for all staff
. Generally providing for access and reasonable accommodation for people with disabilities as service users.
The submission stresses that employment enables people with disabilities to gain independence and participate more fully in society. "The benefits go beyond purely economic," it says and identifies the "lack of connection between the long term nature of disability and the stop/go aspect to capital and current funding programmes."
It also identifies consultation with the disability sector as being of paramount importance and says that there is a need to distinguish between the providers of services for people with disabilities and the "end user."
On the issue of collaboration with other Government Department it says that for the various Government Department "sectoral plans" for disability to have any meaning and to be "effective instruments of change and improvement" it is essential that a co-ordinated and cohesive approach is adopted by all Government Departments.
"The co-ordination and monitoring process should be supported by the Department of the Taoiseach," it says.
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