Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

All efforts are being made to try to reduce that. That is the objective of Tusla as well as myself.

The board has finally agreed this multi-annual strategic workforce plan, which has been quite some time in coming. It is a very significant achievement by the current board under the chairmanship of Mr. Rabbitte. It took a long time because it was a complex thing to develop but it will provide a basis on which hopefully we can approach this issue with a deeper understanding of both how to mix the staff in appropriate ways and also according to the regions and settings. The Deputy's question was around the breakdown across the regions. We have to look at the regions, the particular needs arising in the context of the regions and the ideal model of a mix of approaches or teams to support young people and children. That is all contained within the workforce plan.

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