Alan Farrell (Dublin Fingal, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It does, but it raises another question. There have been issues in terms of the Department recognising qualifications from other jurisdictions. In my experience, getting the Department to recognise or make a decision on recognition takes a long time. My concern is that if the UK failed to address this matter adequately in its negotiations with the EU, or the EU did not adequately address it with the UK, and there were to be a divergence in the future, the delay that might occur when the European Union looked to those criteria in respect of which the curriculum for qualifying social workers or any other profession had changed could mean that Ireland might suffer as a result. We do not have a large enough population to meet our requirement for social workers. Rather, we do not have enough of them and recruitment is insufficient to cater for the demand that exists. I want to flag this as an issue which the Minister might raise in her next conversation on this matter with the Minister for Education and Skills.