Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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251. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the number of children or young adults who have been made wards of court in the past ten years; the degree to which the process continues to provide help and support to the children in question; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [15226/16]

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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Wardship is dealt with by the President of the High Court and the affairs of all Wards of Court are confidential. The Office of Wards of Court is part of the Courts Service. As this office comes within the remit of my colleague, the Minister for Justice and Equality, I will refer the Deputy's question to Minister Fitzgerald for direct reply. I understand that the purpose of Wardship is to look after the welfare and to protect the property of a person where this is considered necessary. There are two types of Wardship: one covers adults who may require the Court's protection because of mental incapacity and the second concerns children, i.e. persons under 18 years of age, who require protection for particular reasons. A child's mental capacity is not a relevant consideration in this particular area of Wardship jurisdiction.

For the information of the Deputy, the Child and Family Agency, Tusla, may be called on to provide a report under section 20 of the Child Care Act 1991, as amended, in relation to proceedings that may involve the Guardianship of Infants Act 1964, the Judicial Separation and Family Reform, the Family Law Act 1995 or the Family Law (Divorce) Act 1996. Tusla has previously provided data on the numbers of reports requested by the Courts under this section, and this is included in my reply to parliamentary questions 929 and 930 on Tuesday, 31 May 2016.