Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)
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Question 327: To ask the Minister for Health and Children the whole time equivalent number of social workers devoted to the assessment of foreign adoption applicants in each of the Health Service Executive areas; the percentage of social workers devoted to assessment in each of these areas; the average waiting period for applicants in each of these areas; and the steps she is taking to reduce the waiting period. [17538/07]

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy's question relates to the management and delivery of health and personal social services, which are the responsibility of the Health Service Executive (HSE) under the Health Act 2004. Accordingly, my Office has requested the Parliamentary Affairs Division of the Executive to arrange to have this matter investigated and to have a reply issued directly to the Deputy.

The Government has allocated additional funding to the HSE in recent years to assist in tackling inter-country adoption waiting times. The HSE has been assessing the provision of services in the context of moving from the health board system to a single executive. It has acknowledged that there is a divergence in the provision of services and is committed to addressing those differences.

The Deputy will be aware that demands for assessment for inter-country adoption are continuously increasing. It should be noted that consequent on the increased number of children coming from abroad, there is also a new and increasing demand for post-adoption reports for sending countries. These are also being undertaken by HSE social work staff. In a number of areas, the HSE have increased capacity through contract arrangements with non-statutory agencies with appropriate expertise. Officials from my office are currently engaged in discussions with the HSE to explore these and other strategies to increase capacity across the country.