Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)
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948. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs to set out the current status of the child care information system; and if she will provide a timeline for its full implementation. [13236/14]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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The contract to supply the National Child Care Information System (NCCIS) to the Child and Family Agency was signed in March 2013. The National Child Care Information System will be the central database supporting the provision of child welfare and protection services. The status of the project as of mid-March 2014 is that the servers and related I.T. infrastructure have been set up and tested centrally. An initial version of the software has been installed and is undergoing rigorous testing. A further round of testing will be carried out before the software is deployed in the Mid-West region as a pilot site. Network upgrades and roll-out of new equipment are in progress to ensure that the pilot site is ready for the deployment of the associated software.

The Child and Family Agency envisage completion of the roll-out in the Mid-West region by end 2014 and, subject to review of the pilot site, the plan is to commence the national roll-out of the system in 2015.

Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)
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949. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs to set out her position regarding a recommendation contained in a recently published report (details supplied) that a national expert commissioning group should be established on a cross-departmental basis to plan and promote the development of highly specialised services for children and young persons with a combination of complex care needs. [13241/14]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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The report in question was recently received by officials in my Department and is presently under consideration.

Departmental officials will meet shortly with officials from the Ombudsman for Children’s Office to discuss the report. Consideration will be given to the recommendation and how it fits with initiatives already underway at an operational level. In so doing, officials will also be mindful of the structures which may emerge from the Children and Young People’s Policy Framework which is due to be published shortly.