I would like to echo Deputy Murphy's call to reduce the time requirement for the wage subsidy scheme. The OECD published a report not too long ago saying that 10% of the working-age population had a disability and 25% of people with disabilities in 2019 were unemployed. It is the largest employability gap in the developed world and is higher than the United States or the United Kingdom. Dr. Mel Cousins from Trinity College said that income from employment would be the best way of tackling poverty for people with disabilities but, importantly, making sure that people do not lose employment would be the best way of tackling poverty for people with disabilities. One thing that is not mentioned too often in the wage subsidy scheme is that the number of employers that are availing of it has actually dropped over the last number of years. What will the Minister do to tackle the highest employment gap for people with disabilities in the developed world?
Sentiment score: 0.35
That is what the OECD said.
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To come back on those figures briefly, the Minister referred to just under 100,000 employers having signed up to the scheme and over 700,000 participants. This gives me a sense that the average number of employees per business that has signed up is about seven. I would like to get a sense of whether the Minister has an understanding of the spectrum of sizes of employers and the number of employees per employer that have signed up to the scheme. Is it disproportionately small businesses, for example, or retail and hospitality businesses? What has been the feedback from employers? In particular, I am just conscious that the regulations that came in at the end of the year, just about a week before the launch of auto-enrolment, changed how employers dealt with the auto-enrolment question and how they were giving pension provision to employees. I would just like to hear from the Minister regarding the different small businesses or the spectrum of different employers that exists by number of employees.
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An average.
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I have been speaking to a lot of disabled people over the past few weeks about their experiences and on this question of a cost-of-disability payment, permanent or otherwise. Some of the stories they told me were that they were using only one heating bar on their electric heater rather two because they could not afford the cost of electricity, that they were going in for central dialysis in a hospital because they could not afford the energy costs of doing it at home thus increases the risk of hospitalisation and that they could not charge their electronic wheelchair. A wheelchair user was going to several shops to try to figure out where she could get the best deal for food. There is real anger and frustration at this drop of €1,400 that has been stripped from people with disabilities. These costs are affecting everyone but this is the most vulnerable population in the State. They were vulnerable before the cost-of-living crisis. They will be vulnerable after the cost-of-living crisis. Importantly, I reject this question of it being a one-off payment. If the Minister intends to introduce a cost-of-disability payment, a payment in lieu of it through the Supplementary Estimates process would absolutely be within his gift and within the gift of Fianna Fáil.
Sentiment score: -0.21