Agency staff costing Tusla €2.5m per month

THE Child and Family agency Tusla is spending over €2.5million a month on agency staff, new figures reveal.

The group had already spent €17.65million by the end of July this year, paying agency staff on average over €2.5million a month, according to a reply from a Parliamentary Question received by Independent TD Tommy Broughan. This is an increase from 2016, when Tusla spent on average €1.52million a month on agency staff and last year when it spent €2.1million.

It has emerged there are more than 1,800 child protection cases waiting over three months for allocation of a caseworker.

Deputy Broughan said: ‘As with many areas in our public service, the Government needs to examine why we are having problems, not just with recruitment but also with retention.

‘Back in July, I requested information on how many child protection cases reported to Tusla were awaiting investigation or allocation of a case worker and was dismayed to see that over 1,800 reports were waiting more than three months for allocation.

‘Our public sector employees work with the most vulnerable in our society and must have the necessary supports and resources to enable them to carry out their important duties in a timely fashion, with fair remuneration.’

Over €18.6million was paid to agencies during 2016 and that figure jumped to over €25.2million in 2017. By the end of July this year, Tusla had already spent €17.65million on paying agency staff, according to figures provided by the Department of Children and Youth Affairs.

There are 1,896 child-protection cases reported to Tusla waiting more than three months to be allocated a case worker, while 395 were waiting two to three months to be investigated and 534 were waiting one to two months for a caseworker.

Deputy Broughan said: ‘Earlier this year, outgoing CEO, Mr Fred McBride, reported Tusla would underspend it’s 2017 budget allocation by more than €11million because of problems with recruitment.’

A Tusla spokeswoman said: ‘In 2016, Tusla established its own recruitment service Tusla Recruit. Whilst Tusla continues to develop new initiatives to attract and retain social workers, there is a finite number of graduates each year and Tusla is in competition with various employers in this field.

‘The use of agency staff include social workers, and administrative staff and these hires are used to fill a combination of temporary vacancies [such as] maternity leave, carer’s leave or long-term sick leave.’