Mr. Gordon Jeyes:

I am always criticised for picking on the courts, but there are too many lawyers in them. We had a case recently which was complicated from a practice point of view but not legally. There were four siblings and two guardians ad litem, while each parent was represented separately, each having a solicitor and a junior and senior counsel. We only had a solicitor. We have de-escalated and need to make sure the same happens on the other side, as it is not necessary. It is not a legal matter; it is a question of the balance of probabilities in the interests of the child. I also believe the oversight, wisdom and compassion of the Judiciary are required. There is a fundamental need to reform the system to make sure it is less legalistic, less adversarial and based more on mediation and arbitration.

I am sorry if I confused the committee regarding out-of-hours social work. Funding has been available and the system will be launched in September. It may be that in the first iteration there will be a couple of hours in the middle of the night when there is no cover available. If the system is working and there is the demand, further funding will be put in place to make sure it is a 24-7 sevice. It is available out of hours every day of the year.

Following the Laois-Offaly case, we have reviewed the provision and arrangements made in all 17 areas, 15 of which have been reviewed by the Health Information and Quality Authority. One will be reviewed shortly and we also had our own internal audit. I am aware of a very small number, about which I am concerned. We have also considered resource issues in Sligo, which were rightly raised. We are trying to obtain additional staff to address some of the issues involved. I have confidence in management, the processes and arrangements made, but we must make sure there is backup available. If we are successful in our request in the Estimates for additional social workers, we will need to address the backlog and make sure that, having got on the front foot, we do not revert. Therefore, the complement on duty and the intake in child protection teams for children in care need to be increased. We think the capacity gap is in the region of 5,000, to whom we are not allocating full-time teams as quickly as we would like. The 500 investigations into allegations of abuse should be dealt with in a more specialist way. To do all of this, discussions are ongoing in the Department. If we were to address it in the traditional way, it would lead to a requirement for between 200 and 280 additional social workers.

Ms Walsh will answer the question posed about the agency.