Sandra McLellan (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the representatives of Tusla here this morning and commend Mr. Jeyes on his commitment and efforts. I thank him for the comprehensive presentation which gives us a clear overview of the work taking place within Tusla.

I have a few questions. Regarding the organisational structure, can Mr. Jeyes give us an update on the after-care services? He states that there was a 15% increase in this regard. I wonder whether most of this is in disadvantaged areas. Where, and how, are these services being provided? Is there a tie-in with local schools for the provision and are there plans to extend it? Is it Mr. Jeyes's view that the programme has been successful?

Mr. Jeyes states in his presentation that practices still vary in some parts of the country. I wonder where, and how, it varies, and have the issues we previously discussed in Louth been addressed. He states that "the allocation of a budget based on needs analysis will be a priority". How will that be determined?

Information technology, IT, facilities came up previously at our meetings. In that regard, Mr. Jeyes states that further change is necessary. As I stated, we discussed the issue of the IT systems and maybe the lack of them. Has there been improvement since, is funding being allocated to the necessary upgrading and, if so, how much?

On the NCCIS, Mr. Jeyes states the phase is operational in some non-computerised areas. I wonder how can this work. Could he explain how that can tie in to a national overall system if it is non-computerised? How much outsourcing is in place for the national out-of-hours services?

Regarding the implementation of the Children First Bill, what will be the immediate firsts steps in this regard?

Dealing with complaints, by how much, if any, has the staff ratio for this work increased? The vast majority of business plan targets are being met, Mr. Jeyes states, despite the fact that corporate support capacity is well below comparator organisations. To what organisations is he comparing it?

A number of organisations have recently had their funding cut in mid-year, and some without prior notification. Can he comment on why this is happening?

He states that Tusla has made significant progress despite resource constraints, increasing service demands and austerity measures. I note this is a trend. All across Mr. Jeyes' presentations, he mentions resources and investment. In his summary, he states "it is clear too that improvement cannot be achieved without investment." Is he of the opinion that resources are still tight? How much does Tusla need in the next budget to sufficiently and adequately improve services? The implication is that Tusla is operating under tight financial circumstances. Last year Mr. Jeyes indicated that Tusla needed investment of €45 million just to stand still and it got €34 million, but how has that impacted on Tusla? How much does Tusla need in the next budget to implement the strategies Mr. Jeyes put to us in the presentation today? It would appear that if Tusla does not get the funding, many of the strategies will not be implemented.

In his presentation, Mr. Jeyes mentions that 2,031 cases were deemed as high priority and are still waiting on a social worker. This is an extremely high figure. Previously, the Minister stated that every child deemed as high priority is allocated a social worker. Can Mr. Jeyes provide a breakdown of the timeframe. In terms of the 2,031, how long will they have to wait to be allocated a social worker?

He stated, in these graphs, that the total number of staff is down, from a high of 3,484 a year ago to 3,465. I wonder what the ideal number should be. I will leave it at that for now.