Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I was cut off there when I wanted to talk about the severe problems we have in workforce planning. Today at the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education, Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science when we were talking about mental health and the need for resources on mental health within schools, the point was made around the point of advertising vacancies when there are so many vacant places. We do not have the workers coming through in the high-demand courses that we need in regard to health. We are not only threatening our economic stability but we causing a deep inequality in access to health and other essential services. There is a real knock-on effect. It is not good enough just to list the technical issues around the Vote and the expenditure ceilings. We need to lift the bonnet on this to get that money and to get it in a way that it can be spent. I have looked at the legislation around it in regard to the flexibility that it will allow us. I believe there is greater flexibility there than we are using at the moment to get that money invested so that we have the multiplier effect and the benefits of it.

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