Louth advocate campaigns for increase in employment of people with disabilities

Cothrom, a disability rights and equality organisation, co-founded by well-known advocates and activists, Dr Margaret Kennedy from Wicklow and Michael O’Dowd from Louth, is launching a nationwide campaign calling on councillors to adopt higher employment targets for people with disabilities within their local authorities, and "to lead by example where central government has fallen short".

Local authorities across Ireland are being urged to take decisive action to increase the employment of people with disabilities, following what disability advocates describe as a "persistent failure of ambition, transparency, and accountability at national level".

The campaign calls for, 8% employment by 2027, and 10% employment by 2030. This stands in stark contrast, Cothrom says, to the Government’s recently published strategy, which maintains a 6% target until 2030, a figure Cothrom says should be regarded as a "minimum baseline, not a ceiling".

Speaking ahead of the campaign launch, Michael O’Dowd said: “The 6% figure was never intended to be an end point. It should be seen as a baseline — the floor, not the ceiling. Freezing it until 2030 turns a minimum standard into a permanent limit.”

He added that the Government had ignored the outcome of its own consultation process, during which disability organisations and advocates explicitly called for a 10% target by 2030.

“Stakeholders engaged in good faith and provided clear, evidence-based feedback. That feedback was not reflected in the final strategy. This undermines trust and raises serious questions about how consultation is being used.”

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Cothrom said that despite local authorities submitting their disability employment figures at the start of each year, the 2024 outcomes have only now been published, significantly limiting scrutiny and accountability.  

“Councils already hold this data. Delayed publication weakens oversight, prevents timely corrective action, and undermines confidence in the system.”

Cothrom also highlighted what it said are structural flaws in how disability employment data is collected and interpreted, noting that survey questions and definitions of disability are not applied consistently across public bodies. 

“If disability is defined differently from one organisation to another, the resulting figures are not genuinely comparable. That weakens national targets and makes meaningful accountability impossible.”

The organisation further noted that the Government’s own consultation feedback report explicitly recognised that disability is not a single or uniform experience, and that different groups face distinct employment barriers: “There are distinct challenges faced by people born with a disability, those who acquire a disability early in life, those who acquire a disability during their working life through illness, injury, or ageing, and those who receive a diagnosis — such as autism, ADHD, or a mental health condition — while already in employment.”

Cothrom said that these findings were not reflected in the final strategy, resulting in policies and targets that are overly blunt and insufficiently responsive to real-world barriers.

While recruitment decisions are operational matters, Michael O'Dowd says that policy direction and ambition rest with elected members: “Members are elected to drive and effect change. While recruitment decisions are an operational matter for management, policy direction and ambition lie with elected members.

"By setting these higher targets, councillors can demonstrate genuine leadership and ensure local government reflects the diversity of the communities it serves. Councillors have a mandate on issues, and they can really lead on this issue and drive for real change as they form policy which is crucial.

"As part of our strategy, we are determined that there is an increase in the numbers of people with disabilities employed in local authorities to 8% by 2027 and 10% by 2030. 

“Councillors set strategy and priorities. By adopting higher targets and demanding better data and transparency, councils can show leadership and demonstrate that inclusion is a core public value, not a box-ticking exercise.” 

Cothrom said it will now write to all local authorities nationwide, calling on councillors to submit motions committing their councils to:

• Higher disability employment targets,
• Robust Disability Employment Implementation Plans,
• Timely publication of disability employment data. 

“People with disabilities are not lacking in ability. What they face is systemic exclusion — reinforced when minimum compliance is mistaken for maximum ambition.”