A Leitrim Councillor is calling for the registration process for social worker graduates to be sped up.
Those hoping to work in the field must register with regulatory body CORU but Paddy Farrell claims the wait times are unacceptable.
At a meeting of the local authority this week Councillor Farrell urged the Health Minister to intervene to ensure health and social care professionals can get into the much needed work force.
He says the backlog is resulting in some people moving to the U.K. or Australia and he believes CORU must process applications at a faster pace.
'They're taking along time to get register and they're finding it difficult to get register. A lot of them have spent four years or more in college and they're eager to get into the workforce. In the professions that they're going into they're badly needed. They only go through so many at a time i suppose and if they could more often and add more staff in their office it would speed up the process.''