Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)

I am somewhat taken aback by the Minister's response because the figures she gave me indicate what I have been trying to ascertain from her on a number of occasions in the past year, namely, that the number of social workers has decreased under her watch. There are fewer social workers now than when the Minister took office. That is despite the Minister coming to the House on several occasions to reassure us that 200 additional social workers would be employed last year. She assured us repeatedly that would happen. The Minister said the social workers were at various stages of recruitment and they would be in place by the end of the year. In May 2012 the Minister has come to the House to confirm there are 35 fewer social workers in place now than there were at the start of last year. Specifically in the area of child protection there are just 14 more. An additional 200 additional social workers were supposed to have been recruited. That has not happened and the situation is that there are fewer social workers than when the Minister took office.

An article by Kitty Holland in The Irish Times today refers to comments by the head of child and family services in the Health Service Executive, Mr. Gordon Jeyes, regarding a report by Professor Bairbre Redmond of UCD on retaining social workers in our system. Mr. Jeyes observes that social workers "cannot do everything currently expected of them" and refers to the problems being caused by limited resources. I asked the Minister on several occasions about the impact on reporting numbers arising from implementation of the Children First guidelines, the draft heads of a Bill now in committee. Neither the Minister nor her Department has made an impact assessment of the additional burden this will place on the system in a context where there are now fewer social workers than when the Minister took office, despite her undertaking to recruit 200 additional staff in accordance with the recommendations of the Ryan report. There is serious cause for concern in the figures the Minister has presented today.

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