Vol. 480 No. 2
359 Mr. Broughan asked the Minister for Education the amount of progress, if any, which his Department has made in examining files relating to children placed in the old industrial and reformatory schools; and if he will estimate the final number of files. [14073/97]
360 Mr. Broughan asked the Minister for Education if his attention has been drawn to any other files relating to children placed in the old industrial and reformatory schools which are not under his Department's control. [14074/97]
361 Mr. Broughan asked the Minister for Education in relation to the 30,000 files relating to children placed in the old industrial and reformatory schools in his Department, the number of these children who were born to single mothers, were orphans, were abandoned, were boarded out and were placed in long-term fostering; and the number which were informally adopted. [14075/97]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 359, 360 and 361 together.
The archivists engaged by my Department have now completed their initial examination of the records in question and have developed a computer database of this material.
Following completion of the initial database, it was decided to broaden the range of data recorded to facilitate future access to individual records. This process is currently taking place and is expected to be completed shortly. Records relating to more than 34,000 children are involved in this process. The majority of these records contain only summary information. However, in some cases the summary records are accompanied by more detailed files on individual children.
