Victor Boyhan (Independent)
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In the absence of time and because we have spent 45 minutes on three items, I will be brief and to the point. I welcome the Minister of State to the House and congratulate him on his reappointment. I am delighted for him. He does an amazing job. Despite all our challenges and talk on Commencement Matters, it is clearly a very difficult time and resources are a key factor in many of the responses the Minister of State has to give us. We respect that as people who work in here. We understand.

To get to the point, we know from the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy Katherine Zappone, that there are more than 5,000 people who have been approved for and should have a social worker. They fall into the two categories of children at risk and children who are vulnerable. This is a designated social worker as per best practice and Government policy, which is to say the policy of the Department of Children and Youth Affairs. When the Minister was here recently, she told us there were 25,387 cases of children with welfare or child protection concerns of whom her Department was aware. She also said there was a shortfall in need of over 5,000 in relation to social workers. What is the latest update on that? With the indulgence of the Leas-Chathaoirleach, I might take a moment in a supplementary to follow up on the response.

Finian McGrath (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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I thank the Senator. The Government has made the reform of services to vulnerable children and families a very high priority. Children about whom there are child protection concerns or who are awaiting the allocation of a dedicated social worker have their situations monitored by a social work duty intake team.Children about whom there is a child protection concern, but who are awaiting the allocation of a dedicated social worker, have their situation monitored by the social work duty intake team. The monitoring may involve a visit to the child, telephone contact with, for instance, the school or preschool or other relevant information. New information about possible risk increasing or decreasing to the child will inform the timeframe of the child being allocated his or her own named social worker.

All urgent and emergency cases notified to Tusla are dealt with immediately. Urgent and emergency cases could involve cases of abandonment, allegations of physical and sexual abuse, parental ill health and the need to find an immediate placement, or threat to the safety or life of a child by a third party.

The number of referrals to the child welfare and protection services provided by Tusla continues to rise. At the end of 2016, Tusla reported a total of 47,399 referrals for the year. Up to 60% of these were child welfare concerns, which were up 12% on 2015. The remaining 40% were child protection concerns, 5% up on 2015. As the Senator correctly pointed out, there are delays in allocating social workers to some children who are the subject of child protection or welfare concerns. It should be noted that cases waiting to be allocated to a social worker include new referrals, as well as children known to Tusla whose social worker is no longer available to them. This could be due to a resignation, a career break or a retirement.

Unallocated cases are a matter of serious concern to the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy Katherine Zappone, who has asked Tusla to provide her Department with regularly updated numbers of the unallocated cases with which it is dealing. The Minister also meets regularly with the Tusla board and the chief executive officer, and has identified the reduction of this waiting list as a key priority in its business case in 2017. The most recent figures supplied by Tusla indicate there were 25,384 open cases at the end of March 2017. Of these, 19,226 had been allocated to a social worker and 6,158 cases remain to be allocated. When Tusla was set up in 2014, there were almost 10,000 unallocated cases. This has been reduced to 5,413 at the end of 2016, a 20% reduction in 2016 alone at a time when referrals were rising.

It should be noted the majority of referrals to Tusla do not result in a child protection assessment, with 60% of all referrals deemed to be welfare referrals. Recent increases in family support programmes have been put in place to deal with welfare referrals and to ensure early intervention. Regarding welfare concerns, the Department of Children and Youth Affairs provides strategic and policy direction for children and young people's services committees, CYPSC, whose role is to co-ordinate community and family supports to include families with child welfare concerns. The abolition of unallocated cases remains a high priority, and recruitment and retention of social workers is linked to achieving targets in this area.

In the 12 months to February 2017, Tusla had a social work turnover rate of 8.4%. This compares favourably with other jurisdictions such as England where the 2016 turnover rate was approximately 15%. It remains a concern that despite Tusla’s increased efforts during 2016, including an intensive graduate recruitment campaign in Ireland, including Northern Ireland, recruitment of social workers continued to be challenging, requiring significant recruitment activity to achieve a modest increase in whole-time equivalent staff and to compensate for normal worker attrition rates with which Tusla must contend.

The number of social worker graduates annually in Ireland is between 200 and 250. Tusla is competing with social work services in mental health, hospital, disability, primary care and probation for this limited pool. It is likely the recruitment of social workers will continue to be challenging. For this reason Tusla launched an ongoing recruitment campaign for social workers on its website and it will also be expanding its 2017 graduate recruitment drive to England, Scotland and Wales.In order to allow social workers to focus on their core duties, Tusla is altering the make-up of teams to draw on other grades, such as social care workers, family support practitioners and clerical administration staff, as appropriate. The Government is committed to funding Tusla to drive forward the reforms and recruitment of the additional social worker complement. The Department of Children and Youth Affairs will continue to monitor progress closely in this regard. The Minister, Deputy Zappone, will continue to engage directly with the Tusla board and senior management team over the course of the year, to review the progress being made in reducing unacceptable numbers of cases that have not been allocated to a social worker.

Victor Boyhan (Independent)
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The reality, which the Minister of State accepted, is that there are over 5,000 children involved. The reply to a parliamentary question tabled in the Dáil indicated that more than 5,000 children who have been brought to the attention of child welfare and protection services have not been allocated social workers. That is totally unacceptable. These are children who are at some level of risk. The State is acting in loco parentisin respect of many of these children. It has a duty and responsibility. Have we not learned anything from the past about the protection, welfare and responsibility of the State when it is acting in loco parentisin respect of these children? They are children who are vulnerable, some of whom have come through horrific circumstances, yet they do not have social workers. I met a woman who had her young child in court in north County Dublin last week. She has a very young child yet there was no social worker. She has difficulty with language because she is non-European, although she is an Irish citizen. These people are vulnerable and need assistance. The State will be sued. Legal action will be taken against the State in the future in respect of its failure to provide social workers for children for whom it acts in loco parentis. The State has a constitutional obligation to protect and care for such children.

The Minister of State referred to own named social workers. Social workers build relationships with children and children build relationships with social workers. Children confide to them very sensitive, hurtful and personal experiences. They need the continuity and consistency of an allocated social worker to advocate for them. I rest my case. It is an unsatisfactory response. It is not the Minister of State's response but it is absolutely unsatisfactory. It is something this House and the Dáil will have to come together on to exert more pressure because they have to be found. These are vulnerable children. The Minister of State knows that more than anyone and I know he is committed to supporting them. It is an unsatisfactory response and it is disappointing to say that. It warrants a constant review; we should know every two weeks. I will ask some of my colleagues in Leinster House to table parliamentary questions next week. It is critical and crucial. It is important and the situation is not acceptable.

Finian McGrath (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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I take the points raised by Senator Boyhan, particularly those on the number of children waiting for the allocation of dedicated social workers. Nobody will argue against that but let us also look at the current situation and what is happening. At the end of March 2017, Tusla had 1,486 whole-time equivalent social workers and it is at 42% of its 2017 recruitment target of 62 additional social workers. Senator Boyhan asked if we had not learned. We have to learn from life's experience and we have to learn that leaving these children in this situation is not acceptable. We sat down and thought about it and came up with a business plan. Tusla's 2017 business plan has identified a target of 369 additional staff which will include 62 social workers and 157 social care workers. I want to use this opportunity to commend the staff I have dealt with a lot recently, namely, the social care workers in the services. I commend the great work they do. In addition, 103 family support workers and 35 clerical administration staff will be recruited. That business plan is there and we are trying to implement it.Tusla, the Child and Family Agency, will be given a budget of €713 million, an increase of €37 million. We have a problem with getting social workers and other staff, and that is something we have to deal with. With an increase of €37 million, it is not a question of money; it is a question of getting the staff.