President to speak on living with disability

President Mary McAleese will today give the inaugural lecture in a major series on living with disabilities in modern-day Ireland.

The lecture will be held in the O’Reilly Hall in UCD at 10.30am and is the first in the Irish Life “Get Ahead” series “Disability And Contemporary Ireland”.

Get Ahead was devised by the Association for Higher Education Access and Disability (Ahead) group, which aims to increase the employment of graduates with disabilities by educating employers.

“President McAleese has always been a relentless advocate for the greater participation of persons with disabilities in all sectors of Irish life,” an Ahead spokesman said.

“This lecture series will bring together the many organisations for the disabled in Ireland to make a powerful statement to the people of Ireland that the climate will have to change and that the employment structures and practices must be modified to ensure all persons with disabilities can enjoy a full role in contemporary Irish life.

“Despite the very low national figure for unemployment, the stark reality is that there is still very high unemployment amongst people with disabilities which means that the booming economy has not included many of our nation.”