Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)

In a normal workforce of 1,000 there will be significant movement in and out of the service. Women comprise some 87% of the social worker cohort we are discussing, most of them under 40 years of age. A number of them will inevitably go on maternity leave and there are also people who have left the service to go abroad, take up other employment and so on. In addition, there are some who were previously employed on a temporary basis who have since, in accordance with the Ryan report recommendations, taken up permanent posts. In short, the overall trend is upward, the recruitment promised has been undertaken and it is a continuous process. There is constant movement in the figures, but overall-----

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