A comprehensive national disability survey is to be carried out by the State for the first time.
The Government has agreed to carry out the survey after the next census is conducted in 2006.
The Minister of State at the Department of Justice, Mr Frank Fahey, announced the survey when he opened the National Disability Authority conference in Dublin yesterday.
"This is a major policy development. This post-census survey will be the first of its kind in Ireland," he said.
"The Central Statistics Office are considering the matter, and will be working closely and in consultation with my Department, other Departments and the National Disability Authority to advance this project in the coming months."
Questions on disability status were included in the census for the first time in 2002 but were not detailed.
The conference also heard that a survey of students with disabilities found that only 27 per cent of these students went forward to Leaving Certificate level.
The survey, by the Association for Higher Education Access and Disability, was conducted in 2000 and presented to the Department of Education last year.
It found that 99 per cent of second-level schools had students with one or more disabilities, including learning difficulties.
Only 17 per cent of second-level schools were deemed to be fully accessible and, although almost two-thirds of schools were multi-storey, only 14 per cent had a lift.
Ms Ann Heelan, executive director of the Association for Higher Education Access and Disability, told the conference that only 4 per cent of second-level schools had written school plans for students with disabilities.
She said specialised supports needed to be made available so that more students with disabilities progressed to the Leaving Certificate examination.
Students should be assessed on the basis of their educational needs and not their disabilities, Ms Heelan said.
She called for the evaluation of all schools in terms of their accessibility and said all schools should have school plans for students with disabilities.
