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

Yes. Five inspectors are being recruited at present. A budgetary allocation of €500,000 for extra inspectors is being made in the budget for next year. Extra inspectors will be recruited in 2014. Decisions on where they will be based will be made by the national director who is managing that service at present. A capital allocation has been made in the case of Oberstown.

The construction has started. All of the planning issues have been dealt with. The construction started approximately one month ago and the buildings are on target. In line with that, I previously got a commitment on the recruitment of 60 additional staff who will be needed in Oberstown.

Deputy Ó Caoláin had a further question on the €6 million for child protection services. I was pleased to get that allocation because, as I stated to Deputy McLellan, the services are under pressure and I imagine that money will be primarily used to deal with the level of referrals and to assess what extra staff are needed to deal with the kind of numbers that are turning up to the child and family services.

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