Mr. Pat Smyth:

I reflect absolutely everything that the Chair is saying. I would make that point from the perspective of the organisation that the work done by social workers for the State and for society is very demanding and needs to be valued very highly. There is a complex suite of things that ultimately drive somebody out the door, including recognition of the complexity and highly demanding nature of the work.

In terms of complexity and demand, a description of a social worker's day can be shocking to any of us. I am not from a social work background but it is quite startling. We need to recognise and probably reward the people working in high intensity areas and to find some way to get that on the table. I do not think we can compete with the other areas of social work for those people on a long-term basis if we do not do that.