Each child may be given an allocated social worker if they are in care, making way for hundreds of social work jobs, according to a suggestion made by the Minister of State for Children, Barry Andrews.

Mr Andrews has called for certain allocations of social workers to be responsible for a child each. He said the changes he was making to the childcare protection system should enable it to become “one of the best in the world”.

Andrews said the Government was committed to ensuring all 5,700 children in care had a social worker, by providing £15 million to recruit an extra 270 social workers this year.

These new revelations about the Health Service Executive’s failure to comply with mandatory rules, whose job was to assess and monitor foster carers, have brought a positive aspect to the table.

Mr Andrews said that positive aspects were that areas for improvement had been identified by HSE audits and ongoing investigations by the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) - meaning they can be dealt with efficiently.

Mr Andrews said: “Were it not for the increased prioritisation of child protection, I’m not sure if we would have those reports or the level of understanding that we do now,” said Mr Andrews. So this was a beneficial report, meaning more social work jobs will become available, there will no longer be a struggle with work loads on individual workers and it means providing enough care for children who need it.''