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

Apart from social workers in Tusla, other workers are needed to support the social worker, not least administrative staff to do the secretarial work. There are social workers who do not even have IT support such as an iPad who are writing reports when they could be face to face instead of using a dictaphone and sending off reports.

Deputy Sandra McLellan raised an issue in a parliamentary question; I could go through my response again, but the answer lies in the information I have given to the committee. A lot of things will happen, but the bottom line is that the role of the National Youth Work Advisory Committee will be considered in the light of developments in the past 12 to 18 months and the implementation arrangements in order to achieve the objectives of the national strategies.

I thank Senator Jillian van Turnhout for welcoming the introduction of a 24-hours out-of-hours service. I have addressed the ICT issue but perhaps Dr. Lynch might add something to it. I will finish and get off the stage in order that Ms McNally and the Secretary General can talk.