Child and Family Agency
Dail Éireann — 2026-02-19
============================================================

Norma Foley (FF), Kerry

We are all very clear about the importance of having the appropriate staff and of having a sufficiency of staff in place to support children. I can share with the Deputy examples of cases that are so complex they require a 2:1 staffing level. That means 14 staff being made available for the care of one child. That is the right and proper thing to do and that is what I would want to have in place. I am just making the point that such are the complexities that, at times, a huge number of staff have to be dedicated - and rightly so - to one child. In some instances, 14 staff for one child is the required staffing level. Notwithstanding that, the Deputy speaks of a plan and I am very happy to send on a formal reply in terms of all of the different levers that we are pulling. I am a particular fan of the apprenticeship model, for example, because it means those who go through the apprenticeship system stay within the Tusla family, as it were. That proves significant.

---

Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-02-19/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:40+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-19