by Maeve McTaggart
Names, addresses and photos of social workers posted on social media
Incidents of violence, harassment and aggression against Tusla staff almost doubled to 2,276 last year, while the agency has also raised concerns about the increasing “severity” of online abuse directed at workers.
Social workers and other staff members have reported 1,190 incidents so far this year.
This is just slightly below the 1,418 incidents reported throughout the entirety of 2024, new figures seen by the Irish Independent have shown.
Almost 5,000 reports of violence, harassment and aggression have been made by Tusla staff since the start of 2024.
Nearly half of these 4,884 incidents reported since 2024 were recorded last year.
Such instances have been directed at staff in person, over the phone, online and on social media at increasing rates over the last three years.
But Irish Association of Social Workers’ chief operations officer Caroline Strong suspects the actual figure is much higher as staff will often choose not to report an incident due to how “normalised” certain levels of aggression are within the sector.
Many social workers would see some degree of harassment or aggression “almost daily” due to the complex circumstances they work in, she said.
They’re constantly working in places where emotions are high, families are struggling, there’s stress
Caroline Strong
Irish Association of Social Workers
“You are dealing with high emotions and very difficult situations. Because of the nature of the work, social workers are in places where there is harm and hurt. They’re constantly working in places where emotions are high, families are struggling, there’s stress,” she said.
“There is an understanding of trauma and what that does and what that looks like within the profession, so often they understand. They don’t accept it, it doesn’t make it OK, but they can understand it.”
There have been instances where social workers have been targeted on social media and had their personal information, including their address, image and location, shared online.
Ms Strong said that while the issue is not pervasive, it is on the rise. There has been a recent example of a social workers facing a “level of invasion” into their private life due to the child protection work they do.
“It’s important for children to be able to trust the social worker. If they’re seeing this online, it can actually impact on the child’s view of the service,” she said.
The increasing “severity” of social media abuse directed at individual staff members is a matter of “growing concern” for Tusla, a spokesperson for the child and family agency said.
Such activity is usually conducted by a “small number of individuals and does not reflect Tusla’s broader relationship with the public”, they added.
A Tusla spokesperson said the vast majority of interactions their staff have with thousands of children and families each year are respectful, despite often taking place in highly sensitive and complex circumstances.
However, any instances of violence, harassment, aggression, intimidation, or any threat to the personal safety or well-being of staff are treated with the “utmost seriousness” as staff are frontline critical public-service providers.
The rise in the number of reported incidents has been attributed to increasingly complex behaviours, more service-user interactions, expanded staffing levels and greater staff awareness of reporting tools.
The vast majority of reported incidents over the last three years have taken place in children’s residential services, while the remainder occurred in non-residential settings.
All reported incidents are reviewed by Tusla to identify what happened, why it happened and any potential measures that can be taken to reduce the likelihood of similar incidents happening in the future.
Ms Strong said the entire system is “under strain” and can make early intervention increasingly difficult, which can contribute to increasingly complex behaviour.
“The level of violence, particularly in residential care, has increased so much. The landscape and the environment have changed and all of this goes back to the fact we need to stop things from escalating earlier,” she said.
Early intervention would mean situations are not escalating “to the point where children are so badly in crisis that they’re hurting people, that is a symptom of maladaptive coping”, Ms Strong said.
“Our child protection system is creaking at the seams at the moment. It has been underfunded, there has been poor planning over decades, our population has expanded,” she said.
“We know our Camhs services, adult mental health services, addiction services are under pressure, there’s housing insecurity at the moment, a high level of poverty in the community, all of those things contribute to this pot where things can get out of hand.”
Ms Strong said the responsibility cannot fall on one agency like Tusla and there need to be better links between mental health, addiction and domestic violence services.
“This juggling between agencies needs to stop. The services exist, they just don’t link up well together at the moment,” she said.
A spokesperson for the Department of Children said: “There can be no excuse for violence, harassment or aggression towards Tusla staff. Such behaviour is entirely unacceptable. The safety and wellbeing of staff providing vital services to children and families must be protected at all times.
“Tusla is operating in an increasingly challenging environment, with both the volume of referrals and the complexity of cases increasing significantly in recent years. Referrals have increased from 43,630 in 2014 to almost 106,000 in 2025, while staff are increasingly supporting children and families experiencing multiple and complex needs.”
