asked the Minister for Health the number for each year for which statistics are available of foundlings, waifs or urchins, who have been assigned to care, fostered or otherwise looked after in circumstances where the legitimacy or otherwise of their births is unclear or unknown; whether there is any bar to such children being legally adopted; and if he will make a statement relating to all statistical information available in such cases.
Written Answers. - Children in Care.
341.
The only statistics at present available of the nature required by the Deputy are in relation to the year 1978. Given that the terms "foundlings", "waifs" or "urchins" refer to abandoned, homeless or deserted children the number of such children assigned to the care of the health boards during that year was 90. It is not possible, however, to readily confirm whether the legitimacy or otherwise of the births of such children was unclear or unknown.
I understand that, in the case of a child who is abandoned and whose parents cannot be identified it is the practice to regard the child as eligible for adoption.