Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy asked quite a few questions. In terms of engagement with the sector, I have met representatives of the Irish Foster Care Association, IFCA, the representative body for foster carers, and also of Movement for Change, which is a new representative body, several times and discussed the increase in funding. I met both of those organisation after the budget as well.

In terms of bringing the wider sector together and facing the challenge of overreliance on SEAs, the Children's Rights Alliance, in the latter part of last year, convened a group, including Tusla. The Ombudsman for Children fed into that, as did many of the direct providers.

The group is drawing up a report right now on where the priorities are in regard to residential care and setting out key recommendations. I expect to see that report in the next number of weeks. It will be an important document and I look forward to working with the Deputy on it.

A lot of work is going into increasing the number of social workers. An apprenticeship programme will be kicking in from September. For the first time, we will be training social workers via an apprenticeship model, which is a new and important innovation. A significant number of Tusla social care workers are being sponsored to undertake social work degrees. This is in line with what the Deputy suggested about training up people within the organisation.

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