Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I put it to the Minister that there will be significant downstream impacts if services are unable to provide training for their staff or if the staff become so browned off with being treated as second class educators whose training is not funded that they leave the service. There is a proper requirement on all those working with children to have completed child protection training. It is funded for teachers in primary and secondary schools and it makes no sense that it is not funded in the child care sector, particularly as people working in that area are so poorly paid relative to teachers. Funding is provided for teachers to undergo this training but the Department is not providing it for those working in the child care sector, where wages are pretty abysmal. People in the child care sector are entitled to the same level of respect as teachers for the work they do. Will the Minister reconsider the possibility of providing specific funding to enable them to undertake this training?

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