Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)

I am very pleased that by the end of this year the 60 additional social workers, to which I referred during the last priority questions when some doubt was being cast on the recruitment, will be in place. There is another question about the matter which we may not get to. They will have been recruited and some will have started work. They will start working in December and January. That is one of the key recommendations of the Ryan report and I am very pleased to have been able to deliver 60 extra social workers. They were not affected by the pause in the HSE or the embargo in place.

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