Ms Aine McGuirk:

That is very stressful. The graduates are very capable but it is a bit like being handed one's driving licence and spending one's first day on the motorway. That is difficult.

One has to learn with experience and over the following few years young social workers gather that experience. There is evidence to show that if one can keep people in the field for approximately five years, they seem to get to a point where they have settled into it, feel more professional, feel they know what they are doing a little better and want to stay. The challenge is holding the young professionals in those first few years.