The employment of persons with disabilities needs a major review, writes John Kelly
The employment of people with disabilities in the private and public sectors is an issue which is often debated, with strategies and resolutions adopted, but somehow that elusive level playing pitch with equal employment for our fellow citizens with disabilities is as far away as ever.
A response to a recent parliamentary question on the proportion of people with disabilities in Government department workforces showed that it ranged from 2.65 per cent (Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs) to 4.3 per cent (Department of Marine and Natural Resources).
The definition used by the Ministers is that given in the Code of Practice for Civil Service 1994:
"People with disabilities means people with a physical, sensory or psychological impairment which may have a tangible impact on their functional capability to do a particular job, or have an impact on their ability to function in a particular environment, or lead to a discrimination in obtaining or keeping employment of a kind for which they would otherwise be suited."
The Disability Act 2005 empowers the Minister for Finance to specify compliance targets for the recruitment and employment of people with disabilities across the departments of the public service and, in the absence of such specification, a target of 3 per cent minimum is to be enforced.
While all of the above data, powers and definition may appear commendable, the situation in the marketplace is very far from satisfactory. The unemployment figure for those with disabilities is reputed to be somewhere between 50 and 70 per cent.
It is to be hoped that the Central Statistics Office, in its 2006 census, will get the data to define this situation more precisely.
In Canada, for example, the federal agency Statistics Canada maintains a national database on disability, using a global disability indicator and recording individual activity limitations.
The World Health Organisation has developed a disability assessment schedule, incorporating a multidimensional evaluation scale for measuring levels of functioning across a variety of conditions at an individual level.
The only approach to such a scale in Ireland has been recently introduced by Fás in its wage-subsidy scheme, which awards grants to those who employ people with disabilities, where the award is in proportion to a person's disability, or rather productivity level.
A disability can be mild, moderate or severe, and the common view in the Irish disability world, as communicated to this author, is that those employed in the public service as disabled, as given in the above table of Ministers' answers, are mostly, if not entirely, at the mild end of that disability scale.
While this perception may be unfair, perhaps totally wrong, it highlights the desirability of having a functional disability scale incorporated into the employment targets in the public service.
It is also argued with validity that the 3 per cent level is much too low and that the target should correspond more closely with the actual national average for disability, which is recorded for Ireland in the EU Eurostat 2002 data for the working age population as 11.0 per cent - 10.55 per cent for men and 11.6 per cent for women.
Other estimates give a much higher figure and the EU average is 16.4 per cent. There is no logic whatsoever for a 3 per cent target.
The Minister for Finance can specify compliance targets, which presumably allows him to specify levels of functional disability as defined by say, the World Health Organisation, coupled with the percentages to be enforced for employment in the public service.
It would be a magnificent initiative if our Minister specified a 12 per cent target, with 4 per cent each in a WHO-style functional disability scale for the three categories of mild, moderate and severe disability.
It would also surely be the correct thing to do if we are to have any claim to be a caring nation or to be treating all of our citizens equally.
To make it easy for the Minister, the following draft is offered:
"Memorandum from: Brian Cowen, Minister for Finance
"To: Taoiseach, Ministers of all Departments, c.e.os of all State owned agencies and enterprises (Copy: Ibec and Ictu, Siptu and all trade unions)
"Re: Employment of persons with disabilities
"Effective: Immediate
"As provided for in the Disability Act 2005, section 47, (3) (a) & (b), I hereby specify that the compliance targets for the employment of persons with disabilities be modified as follows:
"Percentage of workforce : target 12 per cent, broken into three equal sections of 4 per cent each for the three categories of persons with disabilities as defined in the WHO Disability Assessment Schedule Evaluation Scale for functioning levels 0-30 per cent, 30-60 per cent, and 60-100 per cent.
"Please note that this order is to take effect immediately. Please report to me in one month with details of the specific actions of your department for the effective implementation of this order, and within six months on the progress of your actions.
"The targets specified should be achieved within 12 months from this date, and no exemptions for whatever reasons, will be permitted."
• John Kelly is former founder chairman of Ahead, the Association for Higher Education Access and Disability