Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am sure social workers will be delighted to receive the Minister’s thanks but what they actually want is support which they are not getting. If they got support, there would not be the high level of turnover there is. Neither would there be social workers saying that instead of feeling they were helping children or their families, they were part of a system that was causing further harm and stress. Respectfully, it is the Minister who has it wrong, not me. We have a ludicrous situation where the position of a social worker who gives six months notice for maternity leave will not come before the control group to see if it will be filled until the social worker actually takes leave. Then it will take another four months to fill that position. The Minister should not take my word for it but talk to those social workers who are at the coalface and front line and who are at breaking point.

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