Child and Family Agency
Dail Éireann — 2026-04-23
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Ruairí Ó Murchú (SF), Louth

I ask that the Minister comes back to me in writing in relation to the caseload management system. My information is it has been paused. I accept the answer that the Minister got. In relation to the overall answer she gave, that sounds like a proper operating system. That is how things should operate. We have spoken before about the fact there are not enough social workers. The last figure I had was 1,728 or 1,754, including outsourced agency staff. Gerry Hone from Tusla told us we are 300 short in relation to that. There are 1,422 social care workers, of which we are at least 100 short. We need at least 500 foster carers for the overall system.
Not only does the Minister have to look at the issue in relation to special care facilities and those particular issues that are impacting it at the minute that will make it difficult to get away from special emergency accommodation or arrangements but we need to look at the operational situations for social workers and social care workers, ensuring the supports are also given to them so they can they provide the supports because we are losing, at times, some of our best to burnout. In some cases, they are just leaving because it is too difficult.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-04-23/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-27T06:54:48+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-04-23