Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I suspect that my next question is the one the Minister was just about to answer. The target figure was 60%, but what has actually been reached is 19%, which clearly is totally inadequate for the children who have had no social worker allocated to them, despite the fact they are at risk. Why is this the case? The Minister has just said extra funding was allocated, but I believe there is a problem with recruitment. We were told Tusla expected to reach its target by the end of 2016, but it is clear that the target has not been reached.

I wish to ask about the 24-hour service. There is a very limited service available. There is an on-call social worker whose number is available to the Garda and a very limited number of other agencies but not to all those involved in child welfare services. There is no opportunity to have a one on one meeting between a social worker and a child at risk.

In the context of the issues I mentioned at the very start, including closing cases when there is no longer perceived to be a risk, this point must be reached at some stage, but we really need to know how come in a case in the public arena of which we are aware incorrect data were still on the Garda system a year or so after it had been identified that they were not correct.

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