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

I appreciate that. It is daunting for a young social worker who has just finished university and is recently qualified to be handed the work of two people. The social workers do not stay in the job, which compounds the problem. It is a similar story in other areas of the health service. Unless we can give people a normal workload, we will not retain them. We do not build up the institutional knowledge, which is important. It is important that when young social workers are working in teams, they are working with others who have perhaps five years', ten years' or 15 years' experience. It is a bit like going into the carpenter's workshop on the first day. It is important that that is there. I ask the Department to furnish the committee with a note, perhaps in the form of a table or a diagram, showing us where things are at, and particularly the progress that has been made in the past year. We need to see progress on that front.