Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

The Department's staff development unit includes trainers from the Department and the former community welfare service. This unit, which takes the lead in developing and organising relevant training, is planning to train staff on the new services and processes. Some 29 staff are employed directly in the staff development unit. Its training budget for 2012 is €1.6 million, which compares with a budget of €1.1 million in 2011. Obviously, it is an enormous and exciting challenge for the staff of the Department. It is certainly the biggest revamp of the provision of social welfare services for some time. A focus is being placed on helping people to get back into employment, training and education. As the Department is being transformed, the challenges are very significant.

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