Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I take on board the point about the referral service. To take a step back and provide some context, this is the first year of the NCS. It was getting up and running and then, obviously, we had Covid. There were a lot of plans in place to let these sponsorship organisations know what their role was. There is the Department of Education and Skills, Tusla, the HSE, the Department of Justice and Equality in limited circumstances and local authorities.

I have a sense that some of those do not know the extent of their role and my Department is working at the moment and going through the various sponsors as regards who has the capacity to have an impact in better informing them about those situations. There is a tendency to blame everything on Covid but it has had an impact here. I will continue to engage with the Deputy on these services and revert with a written response on that.

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