Vol. 442 No. 5
183 Mr. Browne (Carlow-Kilkenny) asked the Minister for Health if, in view of the fact that social workers in Park House, North Circular Road, Dublin 7 are overstretched doing their own work, he will make extra staff and resources available to deal full-time with requests from adoptees seeking information on parents.
I am advised by the Eastern Health Board that the first priority of its social work staff relates to the investigation and management of alleged cases of child abuse. The provision of a tracing service for adoptees must, of necessity, be afforded lesser priority than child abuse cases and can be undertaken at present only where information is readily available and where the circumstances are straightforward. Any proposal received from the Eastern Health Board for the provision of an enhanced social work support service to parties to legal adoptions arranged by that board will receive sympathetic consideration in the context of further service developments in the child care area over the next two years.
