Community Training Centres
Dail Éireann — 2026-04-23
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Jen Cummins (SD), Dublin South-Central

I do not want to jeopardise any negotiations that are going on either, but I am aware of the frustrations people in the sector have. People are leaving CTCs because they can no longer afford to live on the wages they receive. They feel disrespected and not recognised. I am glad, as I think others will be, to hear the Minister express respect and understanding of how important CTCs are. I am a little concerned about the use of the term "consolidation strategy". I hope that does not mean CTCs are going to be replaced with Youthreach. I hope it means both will be strengthened, as the Minister has said.
Another important point as regards Youthreach and CTCs is that the wages of another cohort of people, namely, staff in the local training initiatives, LTIs, some of whom were in front of the further and higher education committee today, are even worse than those of CTC staff. In fact, I was shocked to learn they want to move to CTC scales. I asked why they do not want to move to Youthreach scales. I obviously do not work in the Department of public expenditure. These are people who are working with a very vulnerable cohort of students. We need to respect and support those staff members to the best of our ability in order that we keep them in place, given all the experience they have.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-04-23/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-27T06:54:48+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-04-23