Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)

I will repeat my remarks because the Deputy seems to have difficulty understanding them. I got the funding for the 60 social workers by the end of last year. Twenty-five of the 60 – ten is a different figure – have been recruited. All of the others have been offered or have accepted posts. I could not be clearer. The 60 social workers will be in place over the next few weeks, and that is extremely important.

I have succeeded in having €21 million extra allocated for child services and protection as opposed to the €14 million reduction that the last Government oversaw. I have succeeded in recruiting 60 additional social workers, 25 of whom are already in place.

I have told the Deputy the number of staff in place at present. The national director of children and family services, Mr. Gordon Jeyes, will be examining the gaps caused by the 45 staff who are leaving. The local and regional managers are assessing the impact of the retirements. Decisions will be made on a case-by-case basis depending on the priorities that are deemed necessary and on what the local and regional managers say to Mr. Jeyes. I certainly want to maintain the numbers in place and to ensure that, where there are priority needs, the director will have discretion. Since the director has the budget at present, he has the discretion to replace those deemed to be in priority positions. I have reached agreement on the recruitment of the new multidisciplinary team for the children in special care. The initiatives are taking place. They will all mean the referrals in the HSE will be dealt with as comprehensively as possible.

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