OECD urges Ireland to do more to boost employment of people with disabilities 

A new study has found we are performing worse than many European countries in that a small share of our disabled population are employed compared with people with no disabilities

Ireland is not the easiest place for a disabled person to find employment.

The Government will need to do more to encourage employers to hire or keep staff with disabilities if the uneven pattern of employment is not once again to be repeated. 

The message comes from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) which is concerned that people with disabilities will again disproportionately bear the brunt of the fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic, as happened during the last economic crisis 10 years ago.       

Its major study, "Disability, Work and Inclusion in Ireland", found that Ireland is performing worse than many European countries in that a small share of its disabled population are employed compared with people with no disabilities.  

"The Covid-19 pandemic is having a severe impact on job creation in Ireland and there is a considerable risk that the crisis will deteriorate the labour market situation for persons with disabilities further – as was the case after the Global Financial Crisis in 2008-09," the OECD said in the report.

It urges the Government to introduce a range of incentives and policies to encourage employers to hire staff with disabilities and sets out its criticism of policy initiatives taken in recent years. 

"Under the direction of several broad policy strategies, including most recently the Comprehensive Employment Strategy for People with Disabilities 2015-24, significant disability policy changes have taken place in Ireland in the past decade," according to the report.

Limited reforms

"The impact of those reforms, however, has been limited. Persons with disabilities in Ireland continue to face significant gaps in employment and unemployment compared with persons without disabilities," it said, citing census figures showing "the employment rate of persons with disabilities was about half of the rate for persons without disabilities".

The OECD said that lower skills and education levels are hampering recruitment by employers of persons with disabilities. 

Very few of those on disability payments in Ireland work, yet, data indicate that a significant share of them would be able to take up work if the right incentives and support measures were in place.

Its recommendations include that the Government extend its employment services, improve incentives for employers, and to change the Partial Capacity Benefit "to make it mandatory for those fulfilling the entitlement criteria and available to more persons with sickness or disability, and by turning it into an in-work payment".

The OECD is concerned that the fallout from the Covid crisis will affect persons with disabilities because a large number are employed in sectors that were most affected by the pandemic.

The latest figures from the Department of Social Protection figures this week showed a fall of around 3,845 in the number of people requiring the pandemic unemployment payment to 110,770. However, large numbers on the PUP are still from sectors that had been shut or restricted by the health restrictions. At 19,504, accommodation and food service accounts for the largest group of people on the PUP.