The Irish Congress of Trade Unions has welcomed the launch of the new Comprehensive Employment Strategy for People with Disabilities., by government.
Congress Equality Officer David Joyce said the strategy was long-awaited and badly-needed:
"It will help lay the building blocks necessary to increase the number of people with disabilities at work. The strategy is badly needed given that people with disabilities are only half as likely to be in employment as others of working age," he said.
"Congress will work to ensure that the overall goal of the strategy – to ensure people with disabilities enter employment and enjoy a rewarding career - becomes a reality."
Mr Joyce said that Congress, through the participation of our national network of centres in the recent Disability Activation Project, has been working towards inclusive job creation.
"Our Training Options programme, which provided training and skills upgrades to people with disabilities, proved a great success with 412 learners having completed the process, 40 of whom went on to be trained as mentors and 125 employers engaging with us to provide work experience and 69 people gained employment as a result.
"It is important that the lessons learnt from this work inform the implementation of the strategy.
"We would hope the strategy will form an integral part of the next version of the Action Plan for Jobs as it is unacceptable that people with disabilities are excluded from mainstream employment strategies," he concluded.
