Ms Aine McGuirk:

We meet three to four times a year. It is difficult to get time for all the meetings. The IASW is a voluntary board. As chairperson I work in a completely voluntary capacity. I cannot get to all the meetings or meet all the people who would like to meet us, which is encouraging.

We see Tusla as extremely important because it is one of the largest employers of social workers in the country. We meet it two or three times a year. Our aim has always been three to four but we do not quite make it. Our meetings are productive. There is a lot of common ground. Somehow what very senior management aspires to gets lost in translation on the ground. There are all sorts of reasons for that.

One is the insufficient number of social workers. It is a fact that there are more posts in all forms of social work than there are social workers. Therefore, people will leave the most difficult work to go do something that they see as being a little easier.