James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will deal with the Deputy's last question first. I cannot find the reference at the moment, but I know the answer to the question. That is national lottery funding and we decided this year that it would provide just a one-off lottery grant to various services. We made the decision together with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform to forego that lottery funding in order to maximise the money we could get for the agency, which is providing its services directly. As a consequence, we managed to get the substantial increase in our budget for Tusla of €26 million.

On the commission of investigation, I echo the Deputy's sentiments. We want this investigation to be as inclusive and expansive as it can be. However, we must always bear in mind that it must be conducted in an expeditious manner so that we get the required response for the group of people at the core of the inquiry, the mothers and babies who were in these homes. We want to achieve this in a timely fashion because as has been pointed out, many of these women are moving on in years.

On the issue regarding the threshold for intervention by Tusla, I have significant information on that. The agency has been undertaking a comprehensive data validation and verification exercise. Therefore, by comparison since the establishment of the agency, data is not yet fully reliable. All children in care should have an allocated social worker. This is the case for 92% of children. The Child and Family Agency has advised that it prioritised children according to need, with the aim of ensuring that any gaps in social work provision were minimal and that duty social workers and foster care social workers had oversight of the child's situation. Referrals regarding emergency cases are dealt with immediately, for example, in situations where a child has been abandoned, is in immediate physical danger or is at immediate risk of abuse. Where a child has not been allocated a social worker, the case is reviewed regularly by the principal social worker to see if there has been any change in the child's situation that would change the priority of the case.

The article in The Irish Timesreports an increase in child protection and welfare referrals, from 21,000 in 2006 to 44,200 in 2014, but this is not an appropriate comparison. The Measuring the Pressure report warns that data comparisons prior to 2012 must be treated with considerable caution, as referrals are now counted differently. In previous years, a single recorded case may have included several children in the one family whereas now, a case relates only to an individual child. I am sure the Deputy would agree that is only proper. The number of protection and welfare referrals in 2011 was less than 32,000.

At the end of December, Tusla employed 1,396 whole time-equivalent social workers, an increase of 29 since its establishment. Some 164 social workers have been recruited since the agency was established and a further 219 are at various stages of recruitment. At 6.7%, the turnover of social workers in the agency's first year of operation was less than international comparators. I recall that when previously addressing this committee, the comparative figures for the United Kingdom were much higher, those for the US higher again and those for Western Australia as a percentage was in the low 20s. From memory, the Australian figure was 23%, the US figure 20% and that of the UK was 15%. We all acknowledge this is tough work and the turnover of social workers tends to be quite high. It is a great tribute to the social workers working in our service that we have one of the lowest turnovers in this area. I understand that in the past people liked to compare the turnover of social workers with the turnover of nurses, but that is not an appropriate comparison.

The Deputy expressed concern in regard to the disparity between the 5.6% I mentioned and the 4.8%. The 4.8% increase relates to an increase in the revenue available. A further €12 million odd is available to Tusla in capital and when the two amounts are added together, we get the figure of 5.6%. I apologise for any confusion that may have caused.

I did not intend any disrespect to Deputy Troy in not answering his questions first. In regard to the adoption (information and tracing) Bill, this legislation is being worked on assiduously. We are a small Department and have had significant work to do on the commission of investigation and its terms of reference, but we are working assiduously on the Bill and hope to have it ready in weeks. I had a meeting on some of the heads yesterday and I assure the Deputy the Bill will come to the House long before the summer. I think I have dealt with all the questions and we can move on to the various headings.