Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy made her comments during the debate on the legislation to establish the new agency, the Child and Family Agency Bill 2013, which is progressing through the Oireachtas. The agency will be established on 1 January 2014. It will assume responsibility for a wide range of services for children, including child welfare and protection services currently operated by the HSE, preschool inspections and domestic, sexual and gender-based violence services, the Family Support Agency, the National Educational Welfare Board and community-based psychology services. The agency will have available to it the existing resources of the HSE children and family services, the National Educational Welfare Board and the Family Support Agency. Control of this voted expenditure will transfer to my Department in the revised Estimates volume to be published in advance of establishment day.

The latest monthly performance report for September 2013 shows 6,465 children were in care, 91.9% of whom had an allocated social worker and 87.8% had a written care plan. While both are not at 100%, performance has improved dramatically over the past number years when the percentage was in the 80s and we are seeing improvement. The vast majority of these children are cared for in a foster care setting, which is unique to Ireland. This is important.

As of 30 September 2013, a total of 1,385 whole-time equivalent social workers were in post across children and family services. The number includes all 270 posts recommended in the Ryan report.

Recruitment is ongoing and the retention of social workers, in particular in those front line positions in child protection, in common with other countries in Europe, is very difficult. There is a very high level of maternity leave. Currently, there are 100 social workers on maternity leave. We are filling vacancies but it is an ongoing challenge to keep the numbers where we want them.

Additional information not given on the floor of the House

As regards the issue of vacancies, I can advise that 114 social work vacancies have recently been filled with a further 136 posts due to be filled shortly, of which 51 have been accepted by candidates and are expected to commence post in the near future.

The 2014 budget, which was published on 15 October last, includes an additional €6.7 million - €12 million in a full year - to support the ongoing programme of reform of child welfare and protection services. This additional investment will support the child and family agency in ongoing reform aimed at improving the quality and capacity of child protection and welfare services, in line with the very significant priority placed upon these improvements by Government.

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