Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Independent)
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723. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs further to Parliamentary Questions No. 386 of 3 December 2013, No. 720 of 15 January 2014 and No. 658 of 18 February 2014, if he will provide an update on the current number of staff working in the adoption information and tracing service specifically in the area of organising and storing files transferred from former adoption societies and mother and baby homes to the State; and if he will indicate if there has been an increase in the number of staff working on this specific project since early 2014 to date. [33335/14]

Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Independent)
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724. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs if he will provide a breakdown of the total number of staff working in the adoption information and tracing unit of the Child and Family Agency and any staff working in information and tracing services with the Adoption Authority of Ireland by grade and including staff on placements and internships; and if he will provide a breakdown of the Departments within the unit and the authority in which these staff members are employed. [33336/14]

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 723 and 724 together.

The Child and Family Agency advises that there are approximately 25 whole time equivalent social workers dedicated to information and tracing. This figure does not include administrative and counselling services which also support the information and tracing service. The Agency advises that the Adoption Service with the Child and Family Agency is currently being re-structured in order to develop a national service to improve equity of access and quality of service and to ensure consistency of policy and practice.

In an effort to reduce waiting times for the information and tracing service, the Agency's adoption service has redistributed records in their entirety from individual institutions to the appropriate adoption team in each area. The waiting list for the service is kept under constant review to ensure that enquiries regarding information and tracing are dealt with as promptly as possible.

The Adoption Authority of Ireland advises that the following staff work in the area of Information and Tracing: one Principal Social Worker one day per week, two full-time social workers, one full-time Higher Executive Officer, one Staff Officer four days per week and one full-time Clerical Officer.