Organisations availing of a Government scheme to support the employment of people with disabilities have said the headline increases to rates announced in the budget misrepresented the “paltry” rises they will receive in 2026.
A number of organisations employing more than 23 people with disabilities say the banded increases make little sense. They say the increases are set to undermine participation in the Wage Subsidy Scheme (WSS) by larger employers, which has already been dropping in recent years.
The Government has consistently said it wants to improve Ireland’s traditionally low levels of employment for people with disabilities, which stands at 33 per cent compared to an average 51 per cent across the EU. It says the WSS provides significant support with the costs involved.
Under the scheme, employers receive a basic €6.30 per hour the employee works, with top-ups then rising based on the number of people with disabilities an organisation employs.
RM Block
The largest organisations, like the discount store chain Mr Price and Rehab, receive a total of €9.45 per hour. This had not increased for four years before it was announced in the budget that it was to rise by up to €1.20 per hour.
Employers say, however, that a move to merge some of the bands has severely cut the scale of the increases to many employers – something they had not initially expected.They say there is a lack of logic to the way the changes are being applied.
Employers with between 12 and 16 qualifying workers, they say, will receive increases of just 21 cent per hour – less than a third of the increase to the national minimum wage. The largest organisations, those employing more than 23 people, will get an extra 55 cent per hour. Those employing between 17 and 22 people, meanwhile, will see the subsidies they receive increase by €1.18 per hour.
Mr Price, which has more than 70 stores across the country and about 1,800 staff, some 400 of whom are supported by a disability programme, receives the WSS for about 61 workers. The company’s director of operations, Edel McSorley, says the Government supports are important in helping the company provide the staff with the training and flexibility required to allow them to work to their strengths.
“The money helps us with the development of the supports and programmes we develop and it had lost a lot of ground in recent years on the minimum wage which had increased significantly. We had made the Minister aware of what was needed and I believe he was supportive, so I’m not sure where the blockage is,” Ms McSorley said.
Kevin Gregory, director of enterprises at Rehab, said the gradual decline of the WSS as a proportion of the national minimum wage, from about 70 per cent when it was introduced to below 50 per cent now, has impacted the organisation’s ability to successfully tender for recycling, packaging and other work against firms with no social remit.
“The changes in the last few years have added an extra €500,000 to our bottom line,” he said, “and we were struggling as we were. They are gradually chipping away at the subsidies and making it harder and harder for us.”
Trevor Jacob of Reachability, a social enterprise in Wexford that runs a garden centre and restaurants, said he “can’t see the logic in penalising employers with larger numbers. I think we’re a very progressive organisation and we’re passionate about what we do, and you’d be expecting every support from Government. But it makes you wonder if they are trying to kill off the involvement of the bigger employers for some reason.”
In a statement, the Department of Social Protection said all of the rates involved had increased in the budget but that the number of bands had reduced from six to three.
It said the majority of the 1,500 employers have just one or two disabled workers, and these will receive the maximum €1.20 per hour increase.
Critics say the total number of employers is down from almost 2,000 six years ago, while the number of employees being supported is down by 14 per cent to about 2,500.
