Mr. Ger Brophy:

Roughly speaking, we have approximately a quarter of the social workers per head of population that there are in the North. The North has a particularly trauma informed need and requires a trauma informed practice for a portion of its general population. We have approximately half of what they have in the UK. If we take that as a general population, and these are figures produced by the Department of Children and Youth Affairs, now the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, and beyond that we do not have exact figures. That is our general position. We know there is huge need.

It would be remiss of me today not to take the opportunity to say that as a social worker of more than 20 years standing, I have enjoyed every day I have been in it. I get what Deputy Costello said about the taking away from direct practice. Having been a team leader for 12 years in Athy, the days I enjoyed most were the ones where I was involved in a child in care review and I got to engage with that child in care. There is so much engagement to be done. We want to put our social workers in that place where they meet those children but we still need to rely on speech and language therapists, CAMHS, physiotherapists and all the other professions who work with us to inform that child’s care plan. I enjoyed those days and I enjoy it just as much now. I would say to anybody who is interested in helping other people to come and join Tusla, apply to be a social worker, a social care worker, or a family support worker. We have many positions for people who have other qualifications or who are married and have experience. There are many opportunities to help. We want to engage those people and get them into our workforce.