Ireland

Disability Definition

Disability is,
(a) the total or partial absence of a person’s bodily or mental functions, including the absence of a part of a person’s body,
(b) the presence in the body of organisms causing, or likely to cause, chronic disease or illness,
(c) the malfunction, malformation or disfigurement of a part of a person’s body,
(d) a condition or malfunction which results in a person learning differently from a person without the condition or malfunction, or
(e) a condition, illness or disease which affects a person’s thought processes, perception of reality, emotions or judgement or which results in disturbed behaviour,

and shall be taken to include a disability which exists at present, or which previously existed but no longer exists, or which may exist in the future or which is imputed to a person.

Employer Legal Requirements

Employers must not disciminate in the job application process, during employment and must accommodate employees to support return to work — and also provide access to other benefits of employment.

Can Disability Status Information be collected during the Application stage, After Offer has been made and After Employment Commences:
• yes, but only if the disclosure is optional and anonymous. Company may be able to say it has a legitimate interest in processing the data under GDPR (ie legitimate interest in ensuring equal employment opportunity)

Cultural Norms

People with disabilities leave education earlier and are less likely to have completed primary, secondary, and third-level education than their peers.

People with disabilities would like to take up work but are often afraid because of the loss of benefits such as medical cards or transport supports.

Insights

The 2016 Census reported that 643,131 people had a disability. That is 13.5 per cent, or 1 in 7 of the population in Ireland has a disability.

The most common type of disability is ‘other disability, including chronic illness’. This might include, for example, asthma, diabetes or heart disease. The next most common is ‘a condition that substantially limits one or more basic physical activities’, like arthritis or a spinal injury. (People can have more than one disability in the data.)

People with a disability are less likely to be working. Looking just at the population aged between 20 and 64, 73 percent of people who do not have a disability are working. However, for people with a disability of the same age, only 36 per cent are working. Looking at those at work – only 6.3 percent of all workers have a disability (that is 120,775 of the people at work have a disability).

In 2015, Government launched a national ten-year strategy to increase the number of people with disabilities in employment. It targets a 15% increase in employment of people with disabilities from 2011 to 2024.

Talent Sourcing Resources

Employer Disability Information http://www.employerdisabilityinfo.ie/ operates a Willing Able Mentoring Program for employers interested in mentoring individuals with disabiltiies. Learn more here.

Employer Disability Information also operates EmployAbility for employers interested in recruiting and hiring individuals with disabiltiies. Learn more here.

Pobel’s Ability Programme prepares transitioning youth for the labor market

References

Association for Higher Education and Disability Publications for Employers

Having a disability can prove a powerful motivation in realising political ambitions

NDA’s Journals and eJournals