The Health Service Executive (HSE) has today defended the funding and staffing available for childcare services amid criticism from social workers and Opposition parties.
The move comes after RTÉ's Prime Time Investigateslast night highlighted the impact of the HSE's recruitment embargo and employment controls on the services available for children and young people at risk of abuse.
The HSE said today the past decade had seen considerable expansion and development in the range and quality of child and family services.
It said that expenditure on children, adolescent and family services totalled €572 million in 2007, or which €460 million was spent directly on children and family services.
The HSE admitted there are 163 vacant social worker posts, although it stressed that 47 of these vacancies are in the process of being filled.
It added that a number of local recruitment campaigns are in progress and that a national campaign will be undertaken for basic social workers later this year.
Social workers have demanded fully resourced child protection and welfare community care social work teams and an end to lengthy waiting lists for support and therapy services.
The Irish Association of Social Workers (IASW), said that children are at huge risk due to the failure of the HSE to fill vacant social work posts.
"As made clear on the Prime Timeprogramme, the lack of response to referrals to community care teams has not been due to social workers' deliberate reluctance to respond to need but is rather a result of a consistent failure to fully recruit social workers on community care teams and the more recent HSE embargo and employment controls," said Declan Coogan, spokesman for the IASW.
He added that members of the IASW are "concerned, angered and frustrated" that the public’s right to a responsive and effective child protection and community care service is being infringed.
"Children at risk of abuse and neglect are among the most vulnerable group in our society yet, judging by the lack of provision of funding for community care social work services, little consideration is given to their welfare. We demand that the HSE fully resource community care social work child protection and welfare teams and fully resource community mental health services," said Mr Coogan.
Opposition parties today called for the Government to intervene to ensure that vulnerable children are better protected.
Fine Gael children’s spokesman, Alan Shatter, said Minister for Children Barry Andrews must immediately publish details of the number of children classified as at "serious risk" who are currently on waiting lists for comprehensive assessment or social work intervention
“It is clear that both the Minister for Children, his immediate predecessor, and the HSE are aware that currently the HSE and the State are failing to meet their statutory and international obligations to provide an efficient child-protection service," Mr Shatter said.
"It is tragically inevitable that the inadequacy of the current service will result in children losing their lives, and in many cases children suffering serious and long-term damage which could have been avoided with early and appropriate intervention," he said.
Labour Party's spokesman on children, Alex White, called on Taoiseach Brian Cowen to ensure the HSE recruitment embargo is lifted and that an emergency programme of recruitment of social workers gets under way immediately.
