Graduates of the Trinity Centre for People with Intellectual Disabilities (TCPID), School of Education spoke about their experience of inclusion in the workplace on TODAY with Claire Byrne on RTE Radio 1. RTE’s Evelyn O’Rourke reports that as low as 17% of people with intellectual disabilities in Ireland are employed. However, it is not just the “financial realities”, reports O’Rourke, “but the extra cost of living with disability between €10k - €13k, and for people with intellectual disabilities that figure is likely to be on the higher end”.

Tómas Murphy is a graduate of the Trinity Centre for People with Intellectual Disabilities (TCPID) and since graduating from Trinity College Dublin, has gained permanent employment with A&L Goodbody through TCPID’s structured Graduate Internship Programme. Tómas is also a researcher and a Board Member with Inclusion Ireland. Tómas tells his story of how he got his job in A&L Goodbody and his journey to a permanent job in a career he loves.

Margaret Turley is another graduate of TCPID, who tells Evelyn O’Rourke the reason she enjoys her work is because her employers, EY, are offering her “high quality, varied, and interesting work”. Ms Turley, who also gained permanent employment with EY via the TCPID Graduate Internship Programme, speaks of her education and the broad range of subjects that prepared her for the world of work that she studied in TCPID.

Margaret’s mentor within EY, Colin Farquharson, speaks of his experience as a mentor with the TCPID Graduate Internship Programme. Farquharson recalls his motivation for engaging with the programme to “create a truly inclusive working world, within EY”, while also recalling some of the misconceptions he made in his early days of mentoring Margaret. “That was my lack of knowledge” he admits.

Colin announces that EY have been developing a “Playbook” in partnership with TCPID, based on their experience of working together, which will be launched later this year (2022). The Playbook will be made available to EY’s client-base, and hopefully further afield, and will detail how to achieve meaningful inclusion in the workplace.