Tom Neville (Limerick County, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

In light of what has been mentioned here today about the blame culture that has been arising, we have to recognise the good work that is done by social workers in the system and by Tusla. It has quite rightly been mentioned that we do not see 99.9% of the good work that is done by these members. People do not shout about it from the rooftops. This House needs to look at some sort of communications strategy to start getting a message out there that will attract people in. Many issues have been mentioned with regard to supporting social workers, particularly young people coming into the profession who have a welcome vision or an ideology in relation to social work. Many of the skills that have been mentioned, including project management, meeting co-ordination and relationship building, are actually business skills that should be part of the education of social workers. If that is already the case, I apologise for my ignorance. This should be looked at because it is clear from what has been articulated today that a huge amount of project management is involved in social work. The business skills that are required in addition to social skills should be pushed as well.