Employment Schemes
Dail Éireann — 2025-12-17
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Joe Cooney (FG), Clare

I raise a serious matter brought to me by a constituent, a disabled woman who was in receipt of the employment support scheme. This support was fundamental. It enabled her to carry out her role, be productive and build a career on an equal basis with others. On the basis that this support was in place, she made the major decision to progress her career. Like any other employee, she successfully convinced a new employer that she should take on a more senior management role. She did so in good faith with the reasonable expectation that the employment support which enabled her to perform her role would continue with her just as her skills, experience and qualifications did and indeed do for every other worker. She was shocked to discover this support would not transfer with her and would not be available to her new employer. This happened during the probation period where performance, productivity and the ability to carry out core tasks under heightened scrutiny are required. The removal of this support placed her in an impossible position. She now feels being unable to meet productivity expectations, not because of inability or incompetence but because the reasonable support that enabled her to do the job has been withdrawn. In effect, she is being penalised for ambition. Remaining in her previous role would have preserved her support. Her decision to progress her career has resulted in its removal. This places her at a significant disadvantage compared with her non-disabled peers and amounts to discrimination in practice. Article 27 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities requires prohibition of discrimination in all matters concerning employment and obliges states to ensure reasonable accommodation and adopt measures that enable disabled people to enter, remain and progress in employment. The employment support scheme is such a measure. It directly enables her to work and develop a career on an equal basis with others. Replacing it with a wage subsidy scheme does little or nothing to support career progression at middle or senior management levels where success depends on personal supports for the employee rather wage subsidies to employers. I ask that the removal of this scheme from those who currently avail of it and wish to progress their careers be reviewed in light of the principles of providing reasonable accommodation, expectations, obligations under the employment equality Act, the commitment of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the employment pillar of the equality and disability strategy.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2025-12-17/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:29+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-12-17