Gaps in services for at-risk children 'simply inexcusable', says Rabbitte

There are calls for TUSLA to reach out to the HSE and other agencies to fill gaps in their services.

The call comes from Fianna Fáil's spokesperson on Children and Youth Affairs, Anne Rabbitte, who says the current situation is simply inexcusable.

She says that nearly one in four children that the Child and Family Agency has concerns for, have yet to be allocated a social worker.

Deputy Rabbitte says social care workers must be recruited.

"We need to have a campaign, we need to have a drive to recruit people back," she said.

"We have the best, we have the most qualified, and yet we are not holding on to them, we’re not capturing them, and we're not clawing them back.

"So we need to see how TUSLA are going to use a real good marketing campaign to make it attractive.

"TUSLA need to demonstrate that we actually want these people, that we are putting in the proper computer systems, we're giving them the tools to do their jobs and we're going to support them, that we are one of the best around."