Employment Schemes
Dail Éireann — 2025-12-17
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Dara Calleary (FF), Mayo

I thank the Deputy. As I outlined, when the employment support scheme closed in 2005, there were 474 employees in respect of 404 employers. Today, we have 1,518 employers availing of the scheme and over 2,500 employees. We are a long way off where I want to be, however, and I will be very focused on getting people with disabilities into the workforce because they have extraordinary skill and talent to offer.
I am constantly reviewing the wage subsidy scheme. In budget 2026, we provided an increase in the base rate of the wage subsidy from €6.30 to €7.50, which is an increase of over 19%. Employers with up to six employees under this scheme will be paid the base rate from next April and employers with between seven and 16 employees are paid €8.50. Employers with 17 employees or more are paid €10 per employee. Employers that employ 25 or more active people with disability are also eligible for a grant of €30,000 towards the employment of an employment assistance officer. As such, we are very much focused on making that scheme work and making it more attractive to employers. I am also very focused on engaging with employers to encourage them to offer opportunities and in doing so highlighting the many companies that are doing that in every role, including management roles, front-facing roles and back office roles, and in using technology to support people to make the most of their talent. We have made changes to the workplace accommodation scheme to do that. I am happy to engage with the Deputy on the wage subsidy scheme, the benefits that are there for his constituent's employer and the supports that are there for them. We will certainly be in contact with him after this again.

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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