Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Question 261: To ask the Minister for Health and Children the basis for the Government's decision to include DNA sampling in the scientific longitudinal childhood study; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [3273/08]

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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The aim of the National Longitudinal Study of Children in Ireland (NLSCI) is "to study the factors, which contribute to or undermine the well-being of children in contemporary Irish families, and, through this, contribute to the setting of effective and responsive policies relating to children and to the design of services for children and their families". This Study will monitor the development of 18,000 children, an infant cohort of 10,000 and a nine-year-old cohort of 8,000 children, yielding important information about each significant transition throughout their young lives.

In April 2006, the contract to undertake this Study was awarded to a research consortium led by the Economic and Social Research Institute and Trinity College Dublin.

Currently, the contract for the NLSCI does not provide for the collection of DNA material.