Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent)
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489. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs further to Parliamentary Questions Nos. 714 and 715 of 15 November 2016, if the numbers provided for children under one year of age taken into care represent individual new cases for each year provided; the reason Tusla does not employ a metric that collates the number of newborn children taken into care directly or soon after birth; if there are plans to introduce such a metric; the number of such removals of children under one that have taken place, by county or location, in tabular form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [38473/16]

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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Tusla, the Child and Family Agency, collates data in relation to the numbers of admissions to care. Each admission to care represents a new admission and hence the same child could be admitted into care more than once during the year. The data records each admission and not individual cases.

Data in relation to each admission is collected for the individual child and recorded on the child's file. Care files contain information about admission, care plans, including reunification plans, placement details, actions of each professional in the child’s life, health and development needs, educational needs and discharge details. This information is not analysed or collated nationally.

Tusla does not specifically identify pregnant mothers as a cohort for specific enumeration through metrics because each case is assessed individually both before and after birth. The newborn baby's environment, familial supports and the parents’ capacity are unique to each child; therefore each assessment is informed by these factors.

Data regarding the number of admissions into care of children who were under 1 year old for the years 2011 to 2015 is set out in the following tables.

The percentage figures above reflect the percentage of those under 1 year as a percentage of the overall number of admissions (all age categories).