Vol. 492 No. 5
95 Mr. Broughan asked the Minister for Health and Children when he will be in a position to provide the information as referred to in Parliamentary Questions Nos. 212, 216 and 217 of 9 July 1997 in relation to foster care, nursing and maternity homes and adoption board personnel respectively. [14556/98]
Parliamentary Question No. 212 relates to long-term foster care and informal adoption arrangements which did not come under the Adoption Act, 1952. My Department currently holds two files relevant to the boarding out of children: other files — 57 in total — have been transferred to the National Archives.
With regard to Parliamentary Question No. 216, as indicated in a previous reply responsibility for the registration of homes under the Registration of Nursing and Maternity Homes, Act, 1934 rests with the health boards. Consequently this information was sought from them. However, a number of boards have indicated considerable difficulty in gathering this information as some records were not transferred from the relevant local authorities which were responsible for the maintenance of the register prior to the establishment of the boards. However, arrangements are being made to have the information gathered to date forwarded to the Deputy immediately.
