Alan Shatter
Question:70 Mr. Shatter asked the Minister for Health and Children the number of children within the Eastern Health Board area taken into care during 1998 and placed in hospital wards as social admissions; the length of time each child spent in a hospital ward; the hospitals in which each child was placed; the number of hospital bed days lost as a consequence of these placements; and the action, if any, he will take to ensure that proper care facilities are available to children taken into care and hospitals are not utilised for such social admissions. [2057/99]