asked the Minister for Health if he will circularise all hospitals and medical card doctors to the effect that when itinerant women are admitted to their clinics or hospitals hospital social workers should as a matter of course visit the camp or site from which they have come, check out the situation regarding all dependent children and then take remedial action where necessary, in view of the extensive reported hardship and actual case histories of very small children suffering extreme emotional and physical deprivation.
Written Answers. - Itinerant Children Care.
182.
I am informed that when hospital social workers become aware of any problem that may effect the children of women referred to by the Deputy who attend or are admitted to hospital, they notify the community social workers employed by the appropriate health board or local authority, who then follow up the case. In the Dublin area there are also two social workers employed by the Dublin Committee for Travelling People.
Public health nurses employed by health boards also pay regular visits to settlements for travelling people to identify children who may need special care or attention.
In these circumstances I do not consider it necessary to adopt the Deputy's suggestion.