Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats)
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370. To ask the Minister for Health if his attention has been drawn to the Scoping Report on Training, Recruitment and Retention of Social Workers in Ireland undertaken by an organisation (details supplied); his views on same; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [63070/22]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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I welcome the recent publication by the Irish Association of Social Workers of its new report, Training, Recruitment and Retaining Social Workers in Ireland: A Scoping Exercise to Assess and Respond to Significant Challenges. 

I also acknowledge the invaluable work carried out by our health and social care workers in providing health services to patients, notwithstanding the recruitment and retention challenges that are being experienced by health services globally.

Addressing the training, recruitment and retention of health and social care workers in Ireland and adopting a cross-sectoral approach to provide strategic direction in relation to workforce planning continues to be a top priority for me as Minister for Health, and for the Government.

This report draws attention to the challenges facing social work professionals in particular, and the importance of strategic workforce planning.

As the Deputy is aware, the Department of Health is receiving technical support under the European Commission Technical Support Instrument (TSI) 2021 to develop a Health and Social Care Workforce Planning Strategy and Workforce Planning Projection Model based on international best practice.

The ultimate objective of this project is the development of scenario-based projections of health and social care workforce supply and demand which will inform a strategy, action plan, and set of recommendations for ongoing strategic health and social care workforce planning.

A key outcome of the project is that the Irish authorities will have the necessary tools, processes, and technical capacity to produce rolling health and social care workforce planning action plans and implement targeted policy measures for health and social care workforce reform.

The Development of this Strategy is being informed by engagement with a diverse range of stakeholders across health and education sectors including the HSE, Higher Education Authority, Tusla, Government Departments, Regulators, Professional Training Bodies.  The project will be completed in Q3 2023.

This timely report will contribute to this work and I look forward to reviewing the report in more detail.