State agencies missing disability targets

A large number of state agencies, including the Equality Authority, have no employees with a disability despite a statutory target that they should account for at least 3% of their workforces.

The 2013 census of staff in the public service shows that 47 out of 239 state bodies reported having nobody with a disability on their staff.

None of the 22 employees of the Equality Authority, the remit of which is to promote equality for people who face discrimination including on grounds of disability, had a disability. The authority recently merged with the Irish Human Rights Commission — another body without an employee with a disability among its six staff — to form the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission.