Mr. Bernard Gloster:

I thank Deputy Neville for his questions and good wishes. It is nice to have the opportunity to engage with him again. To deal with his questions in reverse order, on his question on the Garda exchange of information, there are two parts to that. First, I believe the Garda and ourselves would say there is very good local practice every day of engagement between the Garda and Tusla staff on a range of issues. There is a need to finalise a much more specific and detailed Garda-Tusla data-sharing and joint information sharing protocol. I recently met the assistant commissioner in charge of that dimension of Garda work. We have set a target of not later than the end of November to finalise that. It is a complex subject matter involving the views of the Data Protection Commissioner, the Attorney General, the Garda and so on.

On the process issue the Deputy raised, we now have the national childcare information system, NCCIS, which we did not have until recently. It is rolled out across the country. Every referral we have is up on that system. Our IT people who, to be fair to them, are exceptionally creative are working on an interface between the PULSE system and the NCCIS system so that the Garda can electronically make referrals. We already have electronic referrals for a number of professionals through our portal but for the Garda system it is somewhat more complicated because of the nature of the protection of the PULSE system and our own system. It is certainly being progressed. I am always hesitant to push targets on those because public service IT systems, by their nature, have proven to be problematic in some respects and ours would be no different.

On the question of agency staffing and recruitment, my colleague, Ms Kim Hayes, will give the Deputy the numbers. Regarding what is broadly proposed, Tusla will spend €32 million this year on agency staff. They are predominantly front-line staff. That equates currently to a running order of 677 agency workers. It is both within our affordable pay bill and within our reach to convert a substantial number of those. By converting them, I mean they would all be given Tusla contracts of employment, which, at least while temporary, would position them better for future permanent employment, it would reduce our costs and would increase the stability of our workforce. In terms of the numbers, I will ask Ms Kim Hayes to address what we are attempting to do.