Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 17 February 2026
570. Deputy Robert O'Donoghue asked the Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment the way the Government plans to ensure transparency and accountability for meeting targets on disability employment; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12335/26]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs the Deputy will be aware my colleague, the Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation has responsibility for monitoring compliance with the Part 5 Disability Act 2005 targets across the civil service. My Department is accountable to the Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation in terms of meeting our commitments to the targets in this Act.
In terms of the workforce of my own Department, and in line with the Government commitment to increase the percentage of employing people with a disability in the public sector to 6% by 2025, the Department has reached a level of 6.24% (2025).
In line with statutory deadlines, we will undertake our next annual census in March 2026. We undertake the census each year in form of a survey given to all staff. We then submit our Part 5 data to the Monitoring Committee at DPENDR on an annual basis, by the statutory deadline of the 31st of March.
The National Disability Authority is the statutory body responsible for monitoring public-sector compliance with disability employment targets. Key evaluation mechanisms include: Numbers and percentages of employees with disabilities, trends across sectors, progress toward statutory targets and qualitative actions taken to improve recruitment, retention, and inclusion. These annual reports act as a core evaluation tool of how increased employment influences inclusion across the state sector.
