Disability and Social Inclusion in Ireland

People with disabilities face many barriers to full participation in their societies, but only very limited evidence has been available to date for Ireland on the actual impact on different forms of participation. The aim of this study for the Equality Authority and the National Disability Authority is to examine social inclusion and exclusion for people with disabilities under four headings: Education, Earnings, Poverty and Deprivation, and Social Life and Social Participation, through analysis of the information collected in two representative household samples ? the Living in Ireland Survey and the Quarterly National Household Survey. On almost all the measures studied, people with chronic illness or disability fare worse than others in their own age group, and this reflects the degree to which they are hampered in their daily lives by their illness or disability.