Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 25 Jun 2002

Vol. 553 No. 5

Written Answers. - Child Care Services.

Michael Ring

Question:

296 Mr. Ring asked the Minister for Health and Children the number of children who have been taken into care in the past five years, giving a breakdown on an annual basis; the number of children who have been fostered in the same period; and the number of children who have been taken from their parents for the same period. [14528/02]

Michael Ring

Question:

297 Mr. Ring asked the Minister for Health and Children the number of children who are currently being fostered here; and the number of children who are in full-time care at present. [14529/02]

Minister for Health and Children (Mr. Martin)

I propose to take Questions Nos. 296 and 297 together.

The Department collects annual figures on children through the interim minimum dataset. These figures have been collected since 1998 and the data is not available for earlier years. According to the interim minimum dataset 2000, there were 4,424 children in care. Of these, 3,431 were in foster care.

Table 1 gives a breakdown of the number of children taken into care and fostered between 1998 and 2000.

Table 1: Admissions to Care.

Year	EmergencyCourt Order	Other CourtOrder	Voluntarily	Total Number of Children taken into Care	Number of ChildrenAdmitted to Foster Care	% Fostered
2000	158	369	1204	1731	1340	77
1999	197	365	1370	1932	1414	73
1998	232	329	1460	2021	1498	74