Lisa Chambers (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister for her statement. I have a couple of questions. First, I very much welcome the increase in funding for the Department, which is up by 16%. I am sure the money will be put to very good use. A total of €1.6 million is available by way of capital carryover. Could the Minister indicate what capital investment was not completed last year?

There seems to be an increase in spending on sectoral programmes for children and young people. Could the Minister provide detail to the committee on what programmes they are and what is being done this year?

Specifically, in terms of the spending on Tusla, the children and family support programme is €743 million of expenditure for 2017, which is broken down into seven subheads, one of which relates to other current expenditure programmes. Out of the €730 million or so being spent for this year, approximately €43 million will be spent on these programmes. Could the Minister explain what is involved?

There appears also to be an increase in pay and administration for the agency for this year. Could the Minister also explain where that money is going? We do not appear to have a breakdown from Tusla on what it is spending its money on. No performance information is provided to the committee on where the money is going and I would be interested to hear in more detail about where Tusla is spending its allocation.

One of the biggest complaints I receive as an elected representative relates to the provision of social workers. How many social workers are currently employed by Tusla? Does the expenditure on social workers come under the heading of administration and pay? What is the projected expenditure for 2017 in respect of social workers and how does it compare with last year? Are we spending more on social workers this year and if we are, how much? Does the Department have any plans to employ additional social workers this year? Are there currently any vacancies and if so, how many positions remain to be filled? When does the Minister expect to fill the vacancies?

Could the Minister provide some detail on the children and young people's services committee, CYPSC? I understand new co-ordinators were hired across the country towards the end of last year and perhaps some are being put in place this year. How many committees are currently up and running? How many co-ordinators do we have in place? Could the Minister undertake to provide a performance report to the committee at the earliest convenience? It would be useful for the committee to perhaps have the national co-ordinator of those committees appear before the joint committee to give an update to members as to how the new programme is working.