This report has been prepared jointly by the OECD Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Regions and Cities (CFE), led by Lamia Kamal-Chaoui, and the OECD Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs (ELS), led by Stefano Scarpetta. This work was conducted as part of the OECD’s Local Economic and Employment Development (LEED) Programme and the Employment, Labour and Social Affairs Committee (ELSAC), with financial support from the Irish National Disability Authority.
The report was prepared by Stefan Thewissen, Cem Özgüzel and Tilde Marie Ussing, under the joint supervision of Christopher Prinz and Jonathan Barr, who also drafted sections of the report and co‑ordinated the overall project. Dana Blumin provided statistical support, Anna Ikic and Sorrel Stewart provided support with the layout and setup of the report, and Miguel Peromingo prepared a document on good practises in other OECD countries shared with the National Disability Authority earlier in the project. Lucy Hulett and Liv Gudmundson prepared the report for publication.
Officials from the Irish National Disability Authority played an important role in the funding and co‑ordination of this project, and provided constructive feedback on the development of the report. The OECD would like to thank in particular Aideen Hartney, Marion Wilkinson, Carly Cheevers and Rosalyn Tamming, who met with the team on a monthly basis. However, the opinions expressed and arguments employed in this report are those of the OECD secretariat and do not necessarily represent the official views of the National Disability Authority.
The OECD would also like to thank the numerous department officials across Ireland that participated in this project, including from the Department of Education and Skills; the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment; the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science; the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform; the Department of Social Protection; and the Department of the Taoiseach. In particular, we would like to extend our thanks to Jim Dalton (CSO), Roisin Doherty, Shauna Dunlop and Selen Guerin (SOLAS), Finbarr Lane (DES), Clare Dunne (DBEI), Paul Hill, Martina Jordan, Barry Kennedy, Siobhan Lawlor, Adrienne Collins, Emma Morrissey, Dermot Coates and Helen McDonald (DSP), and David Joyce (ICTU). Special thanks go to Emma Kerins (Chambers Ireland) and Kara McGann (IBEC) who have kindly helped us to distribute the employer survey in these difficult times of COVID‑19. We also thank Bertrand Maître and Elish Kelly (ESRI) for their comments. The team is also grateful to the participants of the OECD/NDA focus group who provided input on a draft version of the report. Finally, the team thanks Simone Gassler, Susanne Dungl, Sigrid Drobits and Lucas Gruber from the Austrian Public Employment Service who shared key elements of the way in which they work with employers and persons with disabilities in a peer learning event organised as part of this project.
The painting on the front cover comes from Ateliers Personimages, a French non-profit association promoting artistic creation for persons with disabilities (www.personimages.org).