Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)

The Ryan report recommended an additional 270 workers. The agreement was that 260 would have been recruited by the end of last year. I am very pleased to say that I have lived up to that commitment. We have 260 social workers recruited, with another ten due to be recruited this year. That is what the implementation group has been working on and is what the Ryan report stated we needed. That has been agreed. I believe the Deputy came into the House a number of times and said we had gone backwards in terms of social worker numbers - we have not. He also doubted whether the budget would be in place for the 60 social workers. The budget has been agreed. The additional 60 social workers, at a very difficult time, have been recruited. The Ryan report recommendation has been met in full. Some 25 of those 60 social workers have already taken up their jobs. The rest, as the Deputy will understand, are giving in notice and have said they will join in coming weeks. It is very fortunate that I got the funding to recruit those 60 social workers because as the Deputy says, approximately 45 social workers representing 3.7% of the complement have indicated that they will retire. I have looked at where those individuals are and I am pleased that they are spread around the country and not in any one particular place. For example, 13 are in HSE south, eight in HSE Dublin north-east and so forth. I can give the Deputy those numbers if he would like to have them.

See this speech in context