McAleese praises social workers' role

“Systemic barriers and inequities” continue to blight the lives of many people in Ireland, President Mary McAleese has told a gathering of social workers.

However, she said it was thanks to the labours of many of those in the profession that these injustices had been brought to the attention of wider Irish society.

In an address to the Irish Association of Social Workers in Dublin to mark the association’s 40th anniversary, Mrs McAleese said social workers were acquainted with “life at its most fragile, tortuous and chaotic”.

“You deliberately choose to place yourselves into that messy arena so that with the help of your skills, experience and the tools at your disposal, some kind of workable pathway through the disarray can be found,” she told members of the association at a function in the Gresham Hotel.

The impact social workers have had on the lives of individuals, families and society was difficult to measure with any degree of accuracy, she said.

“However, we do know that over the 40 years since this association was founded the impact of your work has been life-altering and life-enhancing for many people," she said.

“You have had your successes and your disappointments. You have accompanied men, women and children through very tough parts of their life journey. You have championed the changes that are needed to prevent or mitigate the effects of dysfunction.

"You have educated our society about social justice and you have vindicated the need for supportive interventions in lives that are beset by great difficulties,” Mrs McAleese said.

The association, established in 1971, is the national organisation of professional social workers, boasting more than 850 affiliated members and groups.

The body has repeatedly called for an end to what it says is an inequality in the provision of foster care services in Ireland following a series of high-profile scandals involving vulnerable children in State care.