Policy in Ireland

 

Office for Disability and Mental Health

An Office for Disability and Mental Health was established in January 2008 to support Minister of State for Equality, Disability Issues and Mental Health John Moloney at the Department of Health and Children. This office has cross-cutting responsibilities in a number of departments including this Department.

 

National Disability Strategy

The Government launched the National Disability Strategy on 21 September, 2004 to underpin the participation of people with disabilities in Irish society. The strategy builds on existing policy and legislation, including the policy of mainstreaming public services for people with disabilities. It has been endorsed in the social partnership agreement Towards 2016. 

The key elements of the strategy are:

The Towards 2016 Strategic Document (PDF, 30.3KB) pulls together the vision, mission and strategic objectives of the National Disability Strategy.

Sectoral Plans

Part 3 of the Disability Act 2005 requires six Government departments to prepare plans (known as sectoral plans) that set out how they will deliver specific services for people with disabilities. Those  departments are:

  • Health and Children
  • Social and Family Affairs
  • Transport
  • Communications, Marine and Natural Resources
  • Environment, Heritage and Local Government
  • Enterprise, Trade and Employment


People with disabilities, their families, carers, advocates and service providers were consulted on the plans before they were finalised for submission to the Oireachtas. Each plan includes arrangements for complaints, monitoring and review procedures. The Oireachtas approved the six sectoral plans in October 2006, and the plans were published in December 2006. The sectoral plans are due to be reviewed by the end of 2009.

 

3% Target for Employment of People with Disabilities

Part 5 of the Disability Act 2005 provides for a statutory target, currently set at 3%, for the recruitment and employment of people with disabilities in the public sector. Public bodies are required to submit reports on their compliance with the target to their monitoring committees by 31 March each year. The monitoring committees are, in turn, required to submit their reports to the NDA and ministers by 30 June annually. The NDA submitted the first statutory report on the compliance by the public service with the target, based on 2006 data, to the Minister of State of this Department on 30 November, 2007. The report was published on 4 January, 2008. 

Following the first year of reporting under the Act, the process has been reviewed by the NDA in consultation with the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform and other Government departments, and revised reporting formats were agreed and used to gather 2007 data. The NDA has forwarded the report on the 2007 statistics to the Minister, and it was published on 18 December 2008.

 

Monitoring the Strategy: Senior Officials Group on Disability

Progress on the implementation of the National Disability Strategy is monitored by the Senior Officials Group on Disability, which reports to the Cabinet Committee on Social Inclusion. This group comprises officials representing the six Government departments responsible for implementing the sectoral plans as well as the Department of the Taoiseach, the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, the Department of Finance and the Department of Education and Science.

 

Monitoring the Strategy: Stakeholder Monitoring Group

Towards 2016 commits to maintaining a constructive relationship with stakeholders in relation to progress on the National Disability Strategy. Under the agreement, a National Disability Strategy Stakeholder Monitoring Group has been established to monitor progress on the overall implementation of the strategy, building on the monitoring and review procedures already in place. The group is made up of:

  • the Senior Officials Group on Disability
  •  a number of stakeholder groups 
  •  the National Disability Authority 
  •  ICTU and IBEC

The most recent meeting of the group took place on 19 November, 2008.