Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Will Mr. McCarthy briefly touch on the situation with Tusla and social workers? When Tusla was before the committee last year, we were told it basically had half the number of social workers it needs. We all know that we need a pipeline for supply. We can beat the HSE up in here all we like but the reality is that, unless we fix the supply pipeline issues with regard to education, training and qualifications and deal with the issue of unsuitable contracts of employment, we or whoever comes after us will be back here in ten or 15 years' time talking about the same things. At our last engagement with Tusla, Bernard Gloster told us that it only had 50% of the required staff. It has 1,170 but needs another 1,100. That is what he told us. We need to reduce the caseworker-client ratio. Each social worker is dealing with nearly 60 cases when they should have 30. That is the EU average. The situation is serious. What progress is being made with that?