Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 9 Jun 1998

Vol. 492 No. 1

Written Answers. - Child Abuse.

Alan Shatter

Question:

124 Mr. Shatter asked the Minister for Health and Children the number of reports received by each health board for the year 1997 of child physical abuse, child sexual abuse and child neglect; the number of these reports confirmed; and the number of reports awaiting investigation as at 31 December 1997. [13350/98]

Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children (Mr. Fahey)

Statistics on child abuse as received from the health boards in respect of 1997 are set out in Table A.

The Southern Health Board has informed the Department that it is reviewing its systems for recording and defining categories of child abuse and is not in a position to supply the information requested by the Deputy. In this respect, in conjunction with the review of the child abuse guidelines being undertaken by a working group reporting to my Department, I intend to commission a consultancy study to review the collection of child abuse statistics nationally. The aim of this consultancy will be to set out nationally agreed definitions and criteria for the categorising of abuse in order to enhance the accuracy and comparability of these statistics in and between health boards.

Information in relation to the number of reports awaiting investigation on a particular date is not routinely collected. However, it was previously requested by the Deputy in a parliamentary question on 17 February and statistics in respect of February 1998, recently supplied by the health boards are detailed in Table B.

Table A

Reports of Child Abuse in 1997

	1997	1997
Board	Received	Confirmed
Eastern
Physical	511	179
Sexual	638	228
Emotional	155	80
Neglect	724	346
Total	2,028	833
Midland
Physical	269	80
Sexual	176	37
Emotional	190	108
Neglect	564	233
Total	1,199	458
Mid-Western
Physical	167	38
Sexual	226	46
Emotional	112	32
Neglect	427	109
Total	932	225
North-Eastern
Physical	233	67
Sexual	307	133
Emotional	458	230
Neglect	143	44
Total	1,141	474
North-Western
Physical	60	5
Sexual	73	5
Emotional	41	7
Neglect	97	22
Total	271	39
South-Eastern
Physical	271	137
Sexual	425	93
Emotional	85	47
Neglect	349	175
Total	1,130	452
Western
Physical	139	58
Sexual	173	37
Emotional	43	12
Neglect	256	71
Total	611	178

Table B

Number of Reports of Alleged Child Abuse awaiting investigation at end February 1998

Health Board	Number of reports of alleged child abuse awaiting investigation, end February 1998
Eastern	379 (at end December 1997)
Midland	No waiting list
Mid-Western	3
North-Eastern	117
North-Western	0
South-Eastern	15
Southern	39
Western	15