Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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30. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs if she is satisfied that Tusla is adequately resourced to deal with its workload in view of the recent introduction of mandatory reporting; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [18803/18]

Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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Is the Minister satisfied that Tusla is adequately resourced to deal with its workload in view of the recent introduction of mandatory reporting and will she make a statement on the matter?

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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I was pleased to secure an additional €40.6 million for Tusla in 2018. This is the third year in succession that Tusla has received a significant increase in its funding, which now amounts to more than €753 million. I am satisfied that Tusla has sufficient resources to act on mandatory reporting.

I support the work of Tusla and I am committed to supporting the agency in meeting the growing needs of children and families. The extra resources secured for Tusla in 2018 will assist in meeting key priorities. The additional investment will allow Tusla to recruit a range of additional staff to respond to areas of identified risk and to meet increased demand for services, including an anticipated increase in referrals following the introduction of mandatory reporting. This increase in funding is also enabling the further management of unallocated cases. In addition, Tusla is in the process of recruiting more administrative staff to support social workers in their child protection duties.

In 2018, funding is also being used to establish a single national out-of-hours social work service, building on significant progress made in recent years in strengthening this service. The extra resources will also support enhanced collaboration with An Garda Síochána, additional on-call social work capacity and a new out-of-hours support service for foster carers.

I have requested that Tusla develop a robust workforce plan which addresses succession planning, retention, career pathways, training and development, future workforce needs, priority gaps and a strategy for tackling the priority gaps. The workforce plan will be a key part of dealing with a rise in referrals due to mandatory reporting and in helping to reduce unallocated cases.

I believe that the level of Exchequer funding of more than €753 million available to Tusla in 2018 provides it with the resources to increase its capacity significantly to respond to areas of identified risk and anticipated demand. The introduction of mandatory reporting will no doubt bring challenges but the resources to help Tusla deal with these challenges are in place.

Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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I appreciate the Minister's answer but I am going back to last September when the chief executive officer, Mr. Fred McBride, suspected that €40.6 million would be insufficient to introduce mandatory reporting and a host of other services. When he appeared before the Oireachtas committee he said that mandatory reporting was going to increase Tusla's workload by 150%. Month on month we see HIQA reports where it has gone into various centres and we see the basic fundamentals on Garda vetting and so on are not up to scratch. We see also that there is a lack of engagement of social workers. I am not as fully convinced as the Minister, but she has the Department to best advise her. I do not believe that Tusla has the resources.

Another concern is Tusla's workforce plan. When will we have a timeline on a workforce plan given that more than €700 million is going into that operation? I would like to see how this funding is being spent and how it plans to spend it going into the next budget. Mandatory reporting is up 20% since it was introduced last year.

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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Of course I am aware of the CEO's remarks. The CEO, my officials and I have continued the conversation throughout this time. The Deputy is aware that I made the decision to bring mandatory reporting of child abuse concerns into effect on 11 December 2017. I do not think the sky fell in.

In advance of the commencement, Tusla put in place the structures and processes necessary to facilitate the intake of mandated reports. Mandated reporters are required to make their reports in writing and they have a legal entitlement to an acknowledgement. Since 15 January, Tusla has an online portal to receive mandated reports. People can register online via the Tusla website. They are then in a position to submit reports directly to Tusla.

There were 4,477 referrals to child protection and welfare services in February 2018. This was a decrease of 8% from January 2018. The February 2018 referrals represent a 10% increase from February 2017 referrals and figures. At this early stage, it is not possible to establish if overall numbers of reports to Tusla have increased with the introduction of mandated reporting. It will be kept under review in 2018 in the normal performance of monitoring engagement between Tusla and the Department of Children and Youth Affairs. I am confident that with the implementation of the obligation for mandated reporting Tusla is responding, has put measures in place and, as the Deputy is aware, has worked with an inter-departmental group for the last couple of years so that other Departments were prepared also.

Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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We supported and welcomed the introduction of mandatory reporting when it was brought in. We believe it is a step in the right direction. It may or may not have been a throwaway comment, but the sky is falling in for the 898 children who have not been allocated a social care worker. Last year the One in Four charity raised its concerns about Tusla. It explained that Tusla was not adequately resourced to monitor two out of three of the cases the charity had raised with a credible report of child sex abuse that had been made. The Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, ISPCC, has raised its doubts over Tusla's ability to protect children given the repeated failure of many Tusla care facilities to pass HIQA inspections. Yet again I am sure the Minister is in negotiation with the Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe, for her Department's budget. She will be looking for an allocation for extra resources and I am sure it will go back to the workforce plan Tusla will be putting forward. I am sure the Department is looking critically at the numbers around mandatory reporting. Does the Minister believe she will be pitching for more money in the upcoming budget, solely on the back of the CEO's remarks?

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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My reference to the sky not falling in referred to the system. The system did not crash. With regard to the unallocated cases, I have already acknowledged that where there are cases of children and families not being assigned a social worker, it does not mean that social workers are not communicating with them. Duty social work teams are ensuring those families are being communicated with regularly and ensuring there is no risk to children. I have confidence in that.

Of course, I will be looking for more resources for Tusla for a number of our priorities. As I have tried to describe in answers to other questions, it is a real challenge to get social workers in order to reduce those unallocated cases but even with the increase in referrals, the trend in respect of the number of unallocated cases is going down. This does not necessarily make a family that has not been allocated a social worker feel any better about it. I appreciate this and I have empathy. We are, however, looking at the overall trend going down. At the same time, we need to recruit more. We have had a draft of the workforce plan. Our officials are discussing this and are working very closely on it so that it meets all of the requirements, which I have already identified.