Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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11. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the number of persons that have become wards of court in each of the years 2011 to 2015, by county, in tabular form; and the number that are male, female and minors. [24366/16]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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As the deputy may be aware, the High Court has jurisdiction in Wards of Court matters. Management of the courts is the responsibility of the Courts Service which is independent in exercising its functions under the Courts Service Act 1998. However in order to be of assistance I have had enquiries made and the following table provides details of the number of wards of court declared during the period 2011 to 2015, showing the overall number of wards of court declared and also the number of minors.

The Courts Service has advised that breakdowns by county or region or by male/female cannot be given as this information is not readily available and would involve individual inspection of each file to verify the information, which as the Deputy will appreciate would require a disproportionate amount of staff time. However a sample of 200 cases was studied and it suggests that 62% of persons declared wards of court in recent years are female and 38% are male.