Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

This is really welcome and I compliment the CEO and his staff on the work they are doing on that. We cannot survive on agency staff as it is not good enough for the families or for the children. The figure of 389 conversions starting on 1 January 2020 is a great start for Tusla. May it continue because there are many more staff who hopefully we can bring on to the conversion programme.

Can the Minister address the issue of Maynooth or whatever other colleges may be involved? Has she worked with the Minister of State, Deputy Mitchell O'Connor, or the Minister for Education and Skills on other courses where we can expand opportunities to recruit and to train and develop people in the sector? There are not enough spaces there, so how can we increase the figure of 250 upwards?

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