Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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668. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs further to the recently published HIQA 2016 overview, if the programme of registration of children's special care units has commenced; the additional resources which have been provided to undertake this task; and when the registration will be complete. [21994/17]

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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The registration of Special Care Units is governed by Regulations made under the Health Act 2007.

A series of technical amendments to this Act were required on foot of the Child and Family Agency Act 2013 and were made in the Child Care (Amendment) Act 2015. These provided for the commencement of the relevant provisions which govern the registration of special care.

The Child Care (Amendment) Act 2015 was signed into law in December 2015. In 2016, the Health (Amendment) Act 2016 was passed to provide for transition provisions for different types of designated centres. Draft commencement orders for the relevant provisions governing the registration of special care settings have been prepared by my Department.

Work on commencement orders to bring the appropriate provisions into force has been in progress for some time. The Office of the Attorney General has identified difficulties in relation to the interaction between the various commencement proposals and the amendments that have already been made in the legislation. These difficulties are now the subject matter of specific legal scrutiny in that Office, which will be finalised shortly and any additional technical amendments identified.

Finally, the Deputy may wish to note that Officials from my Department finalised, some time ago, the relevant regulations and, in agreement with HIQA, the National Standards that would apply to HIQA inspections of special care settings. Given that, currently, there are only 3 special care units, it is not anticipated that the registration of such settings will require additional resources by HIQA.