I will be opening and Mr. Reid will be closing.
The NCBI is grateful to the Chair and the Joint Committee on Employment Affairs and Social Protection for the opportunity to speak to it today about the issues with employment affairs and social welfare needs for people who are blind or visually impaired. The National Council for the Blind Ireland is Ireland’s national charity working for the rising number of people affected by sight loss. At NCBI, we work every day with people of all ages, from young children to those reaching their 100th birthday. The majority of people with whom we work have some remaining vision, while only a small percentage are completely blind. The 2016 census figures show that there are currently 54,810 people with sight loss living in Ireland and this number is rising. Anecdotally, we suggest that it underrepresents the actual number of people with sight loss in the country.
One of our major concerns relates to employment and the employment rate. The 2016 census found that the level of labour force participation among people who are blind and visually impaired in Ireland is only 24.4%. That means, of the 24,000 working age adults in Ireland, only 5,856 are in employment. Unfortunately, this compares poorly internationally. The employment rate in the UK is 27%, 38% in Canada and 42% in Australia. This means that people who are blind or visually impaired in Ireland are one of the most marginalised communities in the country and Irish society, one which is not identified or spoken about in any meaningful way.
In an economy which claims to have nearly full employment, with employers actively undertaking expensive international recruitment drives to attract talent, and the conversation about that, it means that both private and public employers are consistently overlooking and not utilising or capturing the skills of people with disabilities in Ireland. Not only is this a missed opportunity, it also demonstrates significant inaction in making the national workforce more inclusive. We know from users of the NCBI employment service that once given the opportunity to work, people who are blind or visually impaired demonstrate real competency and loyalty to their employers. Anecdotally, the retention rate is far higher among employees with sight loss once they are recruited than among those without a disability.
A key component in making the workplace more attractive and getting more people with sight loss into employment is the workplace adaptation grant. That is a contribution of up to €6,350 by the State. It can also be used to upgrade adapted equipment that may have been previously funded. Applications in excess of this sum will be considered on an individual basis up to a maximum of €9,543 if specialist training for assistive technology is required. The total amount of money allocated in 2018 was €87,000 from just 39 applications. If the State was to increase the allocation from €87,000 to €1 million in 2020, this would result in at least 314 people accessing the grant and taking up employment. The cost to the Exchequer from various welfare payments to those people who are currently unemployed is €3,314,000 a year. Taking these people from a benefit trap and putting them into work has a minimum net gain to the Exchequer of €1.3 million without considering any additional taxation that would accrue from their participation in the workforce.
Our requests with regard to employment are to value the community of people with disabilities and sight loss who are being excluded from the workplace and a contribution of €2 million to the workplace adaptation grant, which would pay for itself. The workplace adaptation grant should be administered consistently across the country. Various Departments and local branch offices have different interpretations of what the administration means. It needs to be extended to include the not-for-profit organisations, which cannot currently avail of grants and are expected to provide the required adaptations from their existing inadequate funding. The Department needs to fund a national awareness campaign that proactively promotes the employee retention grant scheme and workplace adaptation grant, targeted at employers who are largely ignorant of the available supports to encourage them to recruit people with sight loss and other disabilities.
In keeping with that, the free travel scheme is valued by all those who can avail of it and needs to be retained. However, not all people with sight loss are eligible for the scheme. Many are unable to obtain a driver’s licence, but also do not qualify for the scheme. An alarming 700 people use our services who have no other option but to pay for each journey on public transport to school, college, work and leisure activities as they do not have sufficient vision to drive a car but are not eligible for the scheme. Access to free travel is not a luxury for this specific cohort.
According to the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection, the cost of the free travel scheme in February 2019 was €101 per person. Adding 700 people with sight loss to this group would cost the State an additional €70,700. Our ask is that the eligibility criteria for access to the free travel scheme be changed to include those with a long-term eye conditions, which render their level of vision insufficient to meet criteria for a driver’s licence.
I will give an example in the form of the personal story of Des Keaney. Des lives in County Leitrim. He is one of the 700 people who cannot drive but is not "blind enough" to be entitled to a free travel pass from the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection. Des has worked all of his life and is now retired. He has to depend on his wife to drive him wherever he wants to go, otherwise he has to pay the full price for each journey he takes on public transport. Access to free travel would give Des the independence to take more journeys on public transport to bring him where he needs to go rather than relying on others to drive him.
The rate of labour force participation among people who are blind and vision impaired in Ireland is only 24.4% and community employment, CE, schemes present an excellent opportunity to get back into the workforce for these people. Our ask is that the Department extend the workplace adaptation grant to those on social activation schemes, such as CE, Tús and others, and people who are blind and vision-impaired should be allowed to apply for a second social activation scheme so that they can get experience with another employer.
In another personal story, in 2015, David Kortukohun got in touch with NCBI. He had worked his entire life and wanted to get back to employment after he had experienced a reduction in his sight as a result of glaucoma. He availed of NCBI's employment advisory services, orientation and mobility service and our technology service. In 2019, David was given the chance to take up a position on a CE scheme. David needed magnification software to enlarge everything on his computer screen to take up the role. However, as the organisation offering him the job was a charity, a section 39 organisation, his employer could not apply for the workplace adaptation grant and the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection was unwilling to allow his application to go forward. This meant that he could not get the technology that would enable him to get work experience and get back into the world of work.
Research has been carried out by the Vincentian Partnership for Social Justice and the NCBI, which found the minimum for an essential standard of living for a single adult with vision impairment was 18%, or €44, more on a weekly basis than for a single adult in the main population. We call on the Department to commit to an incremental increase in the basic social welfare rate for the blind pension and disability allowance ahead of inflation to address the additional costs of living with sight loss. Mr. Darren Reid will give the committee some views on his employment experience.