Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 2 Jul 1996

Vol. 467 No. 7

Written Answers. - Child Care Resources.

Noel Ahern

Question:

121 Mr. N. Ahern asked the Minister for Health if he will give details of the increased resources invested in the child care area over the past ten years resulting from the Child Care Act; the number of places in care both residential and fostering which are available in respect of each of the years 1985, 1991, 1995 and 1996; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14450/96]

Minister of State at the Department of Health (Mr. Currie)

The Child Care Act was passed in 1991. Since then additional resources totalling £39.7 million have been invested in the child care area for the development of services. Sums of £1 million and £2 million were set aside for child care in the 1991 and 1992 budgets. The full year costs of the various new developments approved in these years was £4.7 million. Following the publication of the report of the Kilkenny Incest Investigation the Government agreed the investment of a further £35 million, on an annualised basis, in the child care area. The 1996 allocation of £5 million marks the final instalment of that figure. In addition £3.6 million has been made available this year for capital projects throughout the country. I am currently preparing proposals for Government for the financing of a new child care programme for the period 1997 to 1999. These will be brought to Government in the near future.

An annual Survey of Children in the Care of Health Boards is conducted by the Child Care Policy Unit of the Department of Health. The following table sets out the number of children in care by type of care for each of the years 1985, 1990 and 1992. The last full year for which such figures are available is 1992.

	Foster Care	Residential Care	Other	Total
1985	1,391	1,067	45	2,503
	(55.6%)	(42.6%)	(1.8%)	(100%)
1991	2,161	742	41	2,944
	(73.4%)	(25.2%)	(1.4%)	(100%)
1992	2,284	765	41	3,090
	(73.9%)	(24.8%)	(1.3%)	(100%)

As the Deputy will note from the figures, there has been a noticeable trend away from residential care in favour of foster care. The following figures for 1995 indicate the number of residential and foster care places available in each health board area.

Health Board	Residential Places Available	Foster Care Places/Families Available*
Eastern	386	1,033 families
Midland	24	242 places
Mid-Western	40	228 families
North-Eastern	20	316 places
North-Western	10	54 places
South-Eastern	76	286 places
Southern	100	210 families
Western	44	77 families
Total	700	minimum of 2,446 places

*As some figures refer to the number of families the number of places could be greater (where more than one child is fostered).