Kare service users graduate from Oireachtas employment programme

Trainees from the 2024–2025 Oireachtas Work Learning (OWL) programme graduated at an awards ceremony in Leinster House on Thursday, June 26th.

The ten graduates are services users of Kare and WALK, both organisations that provide services to people with intellectual disabilities. The graduates from Kare were Aoife Williams, Julie Manzor, Daniel Dunne, Andres Caillaux and Jamie Smyth.

The OWL programme is an applied learning, development and socialisation programme specifically tailored towards young adults with an intellectual disability and the Houses of the Oireachtas is the first Parliament in the world to host a programme of this kind.

First launched by in 2018 as a pilot programme with Kare and WALK as sponsor organisations, it is facilitated by the Houses of the Oireachtas Service who provide a workplace in which the young adults can learn and develop their skills to be “work ready”. The goal of the programme is to prepare the participants to find meaningful and viable permanent employment after they graduate.

Speaking on the event, Ceann Comhairle Verona Murphy said; “The OWL Programme is at the centre of the Houses of the Oireachtas and is recognised as the first supported employment model in the Civil and Public Service.

"The graduates have blossomed and grown this year and we are all very impressed by them and happy to have been part of this journey. Since this visionary programme was started by my predecessor, Seán Ó Fearghaíl in 2018 it has been providing practical learning experience and opportunities to its participants. It has also given our elected members and staff of the Houses of the Oireachtas a truly valuable insight into the lived experience of people with intellectual disabilities and autism.

"We are learning every day what the true meaning of accessibility is, and through this process we see that the biggest challenge to accessibility can be in our minds. With the help of the OWL Programme, we are now a more accessible place to work in and to visit. The OWL Trainees have taught us so much, and for that we are very grateful.

"Over the last nine months, the ten graduates were placed across different offices throughout Leinster House – Service Officers, the Web and Communications Team, the Journal Office, the Office of the Clerk of the Seanad, Facilities, the Office of Parliamentary Legal Advisers (OPLA), the Equality Diversity and Inclusion Team, Parliamentary Questions, Training and Development along with the Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine and Department of Finance where they gained valuable work experience in multiple areas.

"Some 47 people with disabilities have graduated from the OWL programme since 2018. Of these, over one third are in permanent employment in the civil service, including three graduates from the class of 2024, who are now employed in the Courts Service, the Department of Children, Disability and Equality and in the Houses of the Oireachtas.

"Another key ingredient in the success of the programme is in the relationships between the Houses of the Oireachtas, our programme partners Kare and WALK, the City of Dublin Education and Training Board, the employing departments many of whom have been represented today, and the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion team in the Oireachtas, who oversee and manage the programme in addition to Public Jobs and the Department of Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation.

"This is a real example of collaboration across the civil and public service and has been noted as such both nationally and internationally. We are currently sharing our model with counterparts in the European Parliament and Australia.”

Photos and story courtesy of the Houses of the Oireachtas.