Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I, too, apologise. I had to leave to attend another meeting.

I wish to follow up on the issue of employment. The difficulties we have in CHO4 are well known now. On average, it is taking eight to nine months to employ a home care worker, let alone therapists and whatever else. I am familiar with the Rainbow Club and how it successfully hired people in the recent past. Have any of the witnesses who are involved in advertising for therapists or whatever the case may be found it difficult to hire those people? The HSE is telling us that is its biggest difficulty. In my CHO, there is 38% vacancy rate for employment. That does not instil confidence. Are the witnesses experiencing the same difficulty as the HSE in hiring therapists?

I spent 15 years in a classroom as a secondary school teacher. I never received any modules in special education. That is going to back to 2002 or 2003. If I were to lose my seat in the morning, I could well find myself in a classroom tomorrow, teaching kids with a variety of needs, or in the ASD hub that is in my school at the moment. To be honest, I would not be prepared for it. Is there a need for a new teaching degree that includes this specific pathway? What is our guests' experience in that regard?