Employment Schemes
Dail Éireann — 2026-02-19
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Edward Timmins (FG), Wicklow

I compliment the Minister of State on the very successful disability conference that was held in Galway a couple of weeks ago. What is the Government doing to upskill people across the board in recruitment and employment services? These are the people who find the people with disabilities and put them into jobs. There are potentially over 100,000 people available to work who could be living more fulfilling lives and contributing to the tax base but who are now unemployed, with many receiving social welfare payments at a cost to the country when that is not necessary. We are not being fair to these people and giving them the opportunity to succeed. Having these programmes is great but I do not see their impact or their targets. How are these programmes increasing the participation rate, particularly as Ireland ranks lowest in the EU for the participation of persons with disabilities in the workplace? What are the targets to show progress in this area over the next five years?

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-02-19/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:40+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-19