Mr. Kiernan Gildea:

There was a question about my reference to private and independent adoptions.

If one looks at a league table of 13 countries, including most European states, in 2004 Ireland was fifth in that league table. We had one adoption per 10,000 members of the population. In 2008, we had moved to the top of the league. As there is such a low number of domestic adoptions, there is a disproportionately high number of inter-country adoptions. A number of things were happening. Ireland topped the league table in 2008 with one adoption per 11,000 members of the population. Meanwhile, the number of adoptions worldwide was going down. In 2004, there were 43,000 adoptions worldwide and in 2011 that number had decreased to 21,900, virtually a 50% reduction. Worldwide adoptions were decreasing by 50% and our place in the league table was going up. However, in 2010 the two countries from which we mainly adopt, Russia and Ethiopia, were technically closed to us. That is the reason the numbers are described as a collapse. These things were happening outside the authority's realm.

I hope I have covered most of the questions.