Foreign Adoptions.

Tuesday, 9 March 2004

Questions (226, 227)

Mary Upton

Question:

312 Dr. Upton asked the Minister for Health and Children if sufficient facilities will be in place to process foreign adoption applications; if there will be no undue delay in the processing of such applications; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7607/04]

View answer

Written answers

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

The allocation of resources within the health boards is a matter for the management of each board.

Mary Upton

Question:

313 Dr. Upton asked the Minister for Health and Children the number of applications for foreign adoptions awaiting an initial processing in each health board area; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7608/04]

View answer

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

The most recent statistics available relate to numbers of applications on hand on 31 December 2003. At that time, the provisional figures for the number of completed applications for inter-country adoption awaiting first, second and subsequent assessments were as follows:

Health Board	1st Assessment	2nd and Subsequent Assessments
ERHA	397	62
MHB	35	5
MWHB	133	14
NEHB	63	16
NWHB	20	3
SEHB	118	19
SHB	224	52
WHB	51	4
TOTAL	1,041	175