Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for that reply because it is very welcome. Only today I was talking to someone from a section 38 organisation that provides residential, respite and day services. They have already met their board to curtail their services in the coming weeks. The services will still be curtailed because the organisation was in the middle of a recruitment process a number of weeks ago with 60 staff positions to fill. They were not healthcare positions, but care assistant positions, which were initially under the recruitment pause. Those interviews and recruitment processes were paused. The organisation will welcome the news the Minister of State has given us here, but it is still going to mean it will take the organisations a number of months to go back and fill those positions because many of the people the organisation was in the process of recruiting will be gone to other positions.

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