THE IRISH Association of Social Workers has described the commitment earlier this week by Minister for Children Barry Andrews to fully implement the Government action plan in response to the Ryan report’s 20 recommendations, as “a very welcome step in the right direction”.
IASW spokesman Declan Coogan said yesterday that over recent years social workers and others working with children at risk had been pointing out that the State was failing in its legal obligations as up to a sixth of children in care did not have an allocated social worker assigned to them.