John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein)

There have been concerns expressed about staff qualifications. Within Tusla itself, there are documented issues of unqualified staff handling serious cases. To give an example, the HIQA inspection in Dublin South-Central in 2025 reported that social care staff were inappropriately allocated to complex child protection cases. Social care staff who spoke to inspectors expressed significant concern about performing the duties of a social worker without adequate training. They also said their caseload could be unmanageable at times. How extensive is that? Is that concerning? Does that issue also occur in some of those external agencies?