Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate the point that Mr. McCarthy is making, but to assist us and notwithstanding the fact that I made a lot of points to him earlier, where for instance a case comes in, is triaged and goes on for further assessments, if the case goes to court and a care order is required, I have a number of questions arising from that. I will be as brief as possible, allowing for the amount of time I have available, and forgive me if I took a lot of time at the start. What is the status of the social worker in the court setting? What is the contact time versus the administrative time? I would like to have an understanding of those two dynamics from our committee's interaction today with the Irish Association of Social Workers. The new chair of Tusla spoke about bridging courses to get people from social care to social work. What are the views of the association on that suggestion? How are academia and Tusla dealing with this idea? Everybody has acknowledged and knows the problem of recruitment. Should we be putting better therapeutic solutions and counselling in place for social workers themselves who work in child protection settings? Should we be designing family friendly policies for social workers? All of these thematic areas could contribute to a better outcome for social workers themselves and, ultimately and most importantly, for children and families.