Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

Hopefully, this anomaly can be resolved. The workers have been waiting a considerable amount of time. Another issue the laboratory scientists have touched on relates to vacant posts in the profession.

They said one in five posts are vacant. That is obviously worrying in the context of qualified staff such as those. Hopefully, those posts can be filled.

The Minister cannot predict what could happen with regard to the WRC talks, but they sound positive. Hopefully, the matter will be resolved and some of these posts will be filled as soon as possible. As we saw during the pandemic, front-line staff such as laboratory scientists are crucial. In fact, the Minister will have seen that when they went on strike.

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