83. Deputy Ruth Coppinger asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform if he will examine providing pay incentives to public sector workers where there are acute recruitment and retention issues; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28899/25]

Sentiment score: 0.08

What incentives will the Minister provide for public sector workers because of the acute shortages we are seeing? Some 382 roles in the national children's hospital are unfilled. There are 700 vacancies for psychiatric nurses. There are 529 unfilled posts throughout the children's disability network teams, CDNTs. Some 500 new social workers are required per year. Some 75% of secondary schools are unable to fill teaching posts. There are 9,000 unqualified individuals in our schools. Need I go on? This is having a massive impact throughout society. Unless the Government admits there is a real problem and institutes a city allowance or other allowances to attract workers, we are in for a continuation of the impact of this crisis.

Sentiment score: -0.04

In our mutual constituency, the resounding message at the doors is that young Castleknock is in Australia. That was said to me. I was told I would not meet anyone over the age of 23 in the area. The Mayor of London estimates that a worker needs £9,600 extra to live in inner London. There is a London weighting allowance, for example, for the NHS, whereby a worker in inner London is paid 20%, or up to £8,172, more. An allowance of 15% is available to those in outer London to attract NHS staff. The teacher shortage is acute in Dublin and all cities and urban areas, as it is everywhere in the country. How can we expect teachers to live in Dublin when the average rent is €2,377? How can we expect people to do that? They are going to emigrate and we will see a continuation of the situation. The impact on disadvantaged schools and students with special needs will be severe.

Sentiment score: -0.02

In other words, the Government is not going to do anything. That is the reality. It is going to stick by these collective agreements that do not serve all groups of workers. I will give the examples of the Tories, who I would not be singing the praises of at any time. Due to the teaching crisis in the UK, a scheme was introduced to make bursaries available. To teach chemistry, for example, a prospective teacher will get a scholarship of £31,000 and a bursary of £29,000, which is much higher than the average industrial wage. Postgraduate bursaries are being introduced. Irish people are going over to the UK to do their teacher training because they will be paid the average industrial wage. They will then stay in the system in the UK for a period. Australia has hard-to-fill vacancies and introduced scholarships in the amount of 5,000 Australian dollars. A non-UK student who is coming to the country to teach languages, physics, science or whatever else will get a bursary. Our Government is doing nothing. We need a city allowance for public sector workers. We need special education allowances. We need to consider how we will lift the hardship from public sector workers. Otherwise, they will continue to fly to Australia and other places all around the globe and our crisis will continue.

Sentiment score: -0.02