HSE fails to meet legal requirement on disabled staff

The Health Service Executive (HSE) has become the first State body to be deemed non- compliant with legislation governing the participation of people with disabilities in the workforce.

The Disability Act 2005 requires that people with disabilities make up at least three per cent of the workforce of State bodies. The National Disability Authority (NDA) has identified the HSE as being non- compliant with the Act in 2012 and 2013.

The NDA's report, which has yet to be published but a copy of which has been obtained by The Irish Times, says determinations of non-compliance are "based on failure for two successive years" to reach the three per cent target.

If a State body fails to reach the target for two successive years, the NDA writes to the body seeking information on the reasons for failure and actions taken to address it.

The NDA then takes a view as to whether the State body has, in so far as practicable, taken “all reasonable measures to promote and support the employment” by it of persons with disabilities. A determination is then made in relation to compliance.

Statutory requests

The NDA said that on reviewing reports for 2012 and 2013, as well as responses to requests for information, it issued statutory requests to five public bodies to assess their compliance with the Act.

Having reviewed responses, it said the HSE was “non- compliant with the Act for those two years”.

It also said it had requested, with the permission of Minister for Health Leo Varadkar, that the HSE take "specific measures" in order to achieve compliance with the Act.

According to the report, two per cent of the HSE’s workforce was made up of people with disabilities in 2013, while this figure rose to 2.1 per cent in 2014 with the recruitment of an additional 57 people with a disability.

The NDA noted that a number of larger public bodies had slipped below the three per cent target for 2013 and 2014.

Deadline compliance

These include the

Office of the Revenue Commissioners

, Beaumont Hospital, Sligo County Council, the

Road Safety Authority

, the Railway Procurement Agency, the

Irish Blood Transfusion Service

, and Carlow County Council.

The report also said compliance with the June 30th deadline for the reporting of data had “deteriorated” since 2013, and that the Departments of Arts (July 30th), Environment (August 5th), and Children (August 24th) were “materially late”.

Three public bodies reported reductions of more than 15 employees with disabilities: RTÉ (18), Solas - Further Education & Training Authority (21) and An Post (29).

Seven public bodies reported increases of more than 15 staff with disabilities in 2014. These were the ESB (16), the Adelaide and Meath Hospital, Dublin (20), the Dublin Airport Authority (24), Dublin Institute of Technology (34), the Health Service Executive (57), St James’s Hospital (94), and Dublin City Council (147).

The report also said the Dublin Airport Authority, the National College of Art and Design, Dublin Institute of Technology, and Cork Institute of Technology had previously failed to achieve the target for two successive years but had now achieved it.

The report will be noted by Government at next week’s Cabinet meeting. It is then due to be published by the NDA.