Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I agree that far more needs to be done as regards retention and recruitment within the CDNTs. That is an absolute priority for my Department. We have under the disability action plan and the progressing disability services roadmap set out measures. I will outline a few briefly. We are supporting practice education in CDNTs. We are supporting student sponsorship programmes. There is an initiative whereby four years' salary is now paid to new graduates over five years to support them in taking a gap year in year 5. We are also developing apprenticeship programmes.

The HSE is driving a number of initiatives to address the CDNT vacancy rate. That includes intensive recruitment efforts across the HSE and section 38 and section 39 organisations. Also, we are engaging with secondary schools and higher education institutions to expose more students to the rewarding and impactful work within CDNTs and within the disability sector overall.

Seven of the disciplines required for working within the CDNTs are included on the critical skills occupations list in the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment as well.

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