BYCRONANSCANLON
DONEGAL County Council has been criticised for re-releasing a statement defending its poor record when it comes to employing people with disabilities.
In Monday's edition of the Donegal News, Fine Gael councillor Terence Slowey slated the council for not employing enough disabled people. He was referring to the fact that the council is ranked one of the worst local authorities in the country when it came to employing people with disabilities. The Council, in line with the public sector generally, has been set a target to employ people with a disability to equal a minimum of three per cent of overall staff numbers. However, the Council has failed to reached this target. In the Council's return to the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, only 16 of their 1,181 staff were disabled. This equates to 1.35 per cent of their overall workforce.
This paper ran a similar story last July which reported the exact same figures. When we contacted the council this week regarding the matter they released an almost identical statement to the one they gave us last year.
Speaking on the matter on Tuesday, Cllr Slowey said that the fact that the council released the same statement again meant that they were "doing absolutely nothing" about the situation.
Cllr Slowey said that he raised a question on the matter three years ago and he also got a similar statement from the council.
"The council should be ashamed of themselves. They simply can not defend that type of record," said an angry Cllr Slowey.
He said that he will raise the subject at the next meeting of the council before the end of this month.
"I can understand a small company being reluctant to employ people with disabilities but the public service should be setting an example".
"I put the same question down three years ago but I got the same old waffle about the council employing more people with disabilities than what is shown on their returns to the Department," he said.
Last July the council released a statement saying that they were considering a special recruitment drive in order to increase the number of disabled staff that they employ.
We received an almost identical statement on Tuesday from Mr Liam Ward, Human Resources Manager with the council.
"One option being explored is the holding of special recruitment competitions specifically aimed at people with a disability. This matter is currently being progressed and the Council proposes to be in a position to deliver on this commitment before the end of the current year," Mr Ward said.
