Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

711. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the number of emergency care orders under section 13(7) of the Child Care Act 1991 that have been granted in the past five years; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [32295/17]

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Emergency care orders are made by the Courts under Section 13 of the Child Care Act 1991. Section 13 (7) stipulates the directions a judge making an emergency care order may give with respect to whether the address or location of the child is withheld from the parents of the child, the access, if any, that is to be permitted, and the medical or psychiatric examination, treatment or assessment of the child.

The record of emergency care orders made and any such directions given at the time they were made are a matter for the Courts Service, and Tusla would not collate this data.

Tusla, the Child and Family Agency, provides information on the number of children received into care for legal reasons, including under emergency care orders, in its annual Review of Adequacy reports. I have included the relevant available data, which refers to the years 2012-2015, in a Table, for the Deputy's information.

Table 1: Admissions to care by reason of emergency care order.

*Data taken from Tusla Review of Adequacy Reports, available at www.tusla.ie.