Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the number of children who received out-of-hours emergency care services through the Crisis Intervention Service each month since its establishment; the county in which they normally reside; the type and location of care placement that was found for them; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [40719/12]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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As part of the ongoing ‘change agenda’ in Child and Family services I am committed to developing the capacity of our child protection services to appropriately and effectively address the needs of children who present in emergency situations outside of normal working hours.

The Crisis Intervention Service provides out-of-hours emergency social work assistance to young people aged under 18 years. The service operates across the greater Dublin area (Counties Dublin, Kildare and Wicklow). Referrals are made by service providers outside of normal working hours i.e. Gardai, hospital and ambulance service personnel. The service was established in 1992 and originally responded to young people between the ages of 12 and 18 years. Since 2005 the CIS was expanded to include all children up to the age of 18 years.

The remit of the Crisis Intervention Service is to respond to crisis situations whereby a child or young person requires immediate placement, either due to child protection concerns, where there is a breakdown in family relationships, placement breakdowns or due to accommodation issues. CIS aims to prevent children or young people from having to access emergency care unnecessarily. Where it is appropriate, CIS tries to place children or young people with alternative family members or friends or mediate between children/young people and parents where there is a breakdown in family relations. The Crisis Intervention Service put a significant amount of effort into ensuring that placing a child or young person within emergency residential units or foster care is a last resort.

Referrals are received to the Crisis Intervention Service by telephone from service providers working at night, for example An Garda Siochana, Hospitals, Ambulance Services. Referrals are accepted in relation to: concerns regarding the immediate welfare of children; young people in crisis seeking emergency accommodation; young people who are identified by the Garda National Immigration Bureau as separated children seeking asylum.

All details of contacts with children are passed to the local social work team by the start of the working day. The local social work team are the case managers and will follow up on any further assessments or interventions necessary.

The precise information requested by the Deputy is not routinely collected by the HSE. However during 2011, the total number of children who were accommodated in CIS emergency placements was 288. During the 1st and 2nd quarter of 2012, a total of 141 children/young people were referred to the CIS for emergency accommodation.