Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Has Tusla tried to recruit expert staff? I mean staff who can head up investigations into historical cases. There are 5,000 historical cases but an ordinary person cannot work in such a department. Has funding been set aside to bring back people with relevant experience, who can manage teams, demonstrate leadership, give direction and deal with historical cases?

The CEO of Tusla was in here two weeks ago. I asked him whether historical cases were high, low or medium priority. I was told that present day child welfare cases are high priority whereas historical cases would not be as high a priority. To me, historical cases should enjoy the same priority as present day cases. We do not have the manpower in place. Have historical cases been pitched at the right qualified staff? Have they been encouraged to come forward to lead teams? Will they be supported?

I have a question on ICT. It is hard to retain and recruit staff if they do not have the tools to do their job. I have met a lot of social care workers and some of them told me that they did not have the ICT tools to do their job.

My final question is on family resource centres.