Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)
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11. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the number of children in care who now have an allocated social worker; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [32601/13]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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The HSE compiles monthly performance reports which include statistics in relation to children in care. These reports are published on the HSE website. The latest published report shows that there were 6,421 children in the care of the HSE in April 2013, of which 5,932 children had an allocated social worker. This is compared to 5,700 in March 2011.

It is important to note the dynamic nature of children entering and leaving care. The HSE Review of Adequacy for HSE Children and Families Services 2011 showed that 36.7% of children admitted to care during 2011 were also discharged within the year. The Review also showed that there were over 2,000 admissions to care in each of the years, 2009 to 2011.

Latest figures from the HSE indicate that there are currently 1,390 WTE (whole time equivalent) social workers in child and family services. This includes all 270 additional social workers recruited in line with the detailed recommendation of the Ryan Report Implementation Plan 2009. The recruitment of these posts was completed in full by this Government and these posts were not subject to the public service recruitment moratorium. Social work figures are consistently in flux with vacancies arising due to maternity leave, career breaks, etc. However this Government is overseeing an ongoing programme of active recruitment to fill vacancies. 94 vacancies have recently been filled with a further 81 currently being filled.