Colm Burke (Cork North-Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I very much appreciate that additional funding is going into this area. It is interesting to see that the majority of services reported having difficulty recruiting staff over the last 12 months, a process that was reported as difficult or very difficult by 95% of managers. The challenges of recruiting and retaining staff are having stark consequences, with 30% of managers reporting that problems recruiting or retaining staff will result in service closure, an increase of 6% over the previous year's survey. The threat of room closures was reported by 42% of managers, an increase of 9% from 2022. There is a challenge there and it is about trying to meet that challenge and the demands out there in the provision of the services. This needs a continued review and planning for the year forward and into 2026. We need to make sure we have a substantial increase in funding over the next 12 months.

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