Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate that Covid has played a role. The jobs website indicates the number of CE vacancies today is 2,406. It is a great shame that we have disability services with 26 posts they cannot fill. They can fill only 18. They tell me it is because they are not getting the referrals. Alarm bells should be ringing when this is happening. They should be ringing over the fact that we have over 2,000 vacancies. It is important that we acknowledge referrals to CE were reducing long before Covid. They were reducing all the time. JobPath was ramping up and CE was not getting a look in.

I appreciate the scheme has been extended for current participants but, after Covid, we should consider the position of the over-55s. It is such a shame that when they finish their time, a service could be lost. They are doing a really good job, particularly in rural areas, where they cannot be replaced. I ask the Minister of State to consider the issue of the over-55s in time.

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