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

That question goes to the heart of a lot of the challenges being experienced by Tusla. I just indicated to the Deputy that a recruitment campaign is being run specifically for the five areas where there is the greatest problem of unallocated cases because of a lack of social workers. Tusla is also conducting a number of other campaigns to recruit the number of social workers required. It is also putting in place a number of new retention initiatives on foot of a survey of staff throughout the organisation. I believe that some of those initiatives are happening now. Tusla is trying new things to increase the number of social workers and in that context, I am satisfied. The Deputy will be aware that a shortage of social workers is not exclusive to Ireland but is also an issue in many other jurisdictions. I am satisfied that Tusla is being innovative in its efforts to increase the number of social workers in the agency.

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