Hundreds of children considered to be at risk of abuse or neglect by family members, neighbours or doctors are not in a position to be checked by social workers due to staff shortages, it has emerged.
Social workers have alerted Health Service Executive (HSE) management in a number of parts of the State that they are not able to respond to many child protection concerns due to staff shortages and the recruitment embargo.
In one social work department outside the Dublin area, social workers estimate that 400 children deemed to be at risk have not received any assessment or support from community care social work teams.
The Irish Association of Social Workers, the main representative group for social workers, has compiled a list of cases which it says are affected by staff shortages and the recruitment embargo. They include:
A referral in September 2006 to a social work department after an eight-year-old boy witnessed his mother's attempt to hang herself. To date, it says there has been no response to the referral.
A nine-year-old girl reported to her teacher in July 2006 that her uncle kept trying to kiss her on the lips and that her mother's boyfriend was showing her photos of naked women on his phone. To date, it says there has been no response to this referral.
Children in residential care in a number of parts of the State are not receiving visits from their social worker, while contact visits between children in care and their parents are proving difficult to facilitate.
Declan Coogan, a spokesman for the association, said: "Children at risk of abuse and neglect are among the most vulnerable groups 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."
In a statement yesterday the HSE did not say whether referrals were not being checked or followed up. However, it said the "prioritisation of particular cases" was made in the context of the needs of individual service users and communities.
"Decisions regarding the allocation of resources for child and family services are made on an ongoing basis by service managers at local and national level in integration with a wide range of statutory and non-statutory agencies," the statement said.
". . . In all situations the safety and welfare of children and their families is the key consideration informing the planning process."
The HSE said an additional 335 social work posts had been introduced over the past three years. Since its "recruitment pause" in October this year, there had been appointments in frontline areas such as social work, it said.
Mr Coogan said referrals were not followed up because of a "consistent failure" to fully recruit social workers on community care teams, and the effects of the recruitment embargo.
