Companies that employ disabled people would be able to benefit from tax deductions on any works carried out to improve accessibility at work, the National Commission Persons with Disability said.

Employers will be eligible to the tax deductions for installing or modifying physical struc-tures to improve accessibility, buying equipment for disabled people and for costs incurred in the training of disabled employees to help them in their job.

The employer can claim a full deduction equivalent to 100 per cent of the cost incurred against income charged to tax for the relevant year of assess-ment. The maximum deduc-tion claimed cannot exceed €20,000.

The workplace accessibility tax deduction scheme, that started in January, is open to employers and who have a staff member who is a disabled person registered with KNPD.

An employer who has newly recruited a disabled person is also eligible for this scheme, the commission said.

Further information and the application form can be downloaded from the commission website www.knpd.org.