Carlow-Kilkenny TD says more resources are needed to address Tusla recruitment and retention issues

A local TD says more resources are needed to deal with recruitment and retention issues in Tusla.

It’s as new figures show 422 employees left the child and family agency in the first nine months of this year.

The data shows the turnover rate among social workers is highest across the agency at 8%.

Sinn Féin’s Spokesperson on Children and Youth Affairs, Kathleen Funchion, says the workload can be overwhelming for staff:

“We are seeing maybe some people leave for the private sector where the case load might be a lot more manageable. You have to remember particularly in the area of social work, if you’ve gone into that type of work you really want to make a difference and you really want to help people. And then if you’ve got so many cases that you don’t even know where to start with it,  it’s very, very frustrating”