Denise Mitchell (Dublin Bay North, Sinn Fein)
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153. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the number of children on voluntary care orders; and the length of time these children have spent on voluntary care orders, in tabular form. [3576/18]

Denise Mitchell (Dublin Bay North, Sinn Fein)
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154. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the number of children that have spent more than one, three, five and eight years respectively on voluntary care orders, in tabular form. [3577/18]

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 153 and 154 together.

Under Section 4 of the Child Care Act, 1991, the means by which a child can be received into voluntary care by Tusla, the Child and Family Agency, is set out. This section of the Act allows Tusla to receive a child into care without a court order and with the consent of the child's parents, when this is required for the child’s welfare or protection.

Data about the length of time children spend on voluntary care orders is not collated in the manner requested by the Deputy.

Tusla have advised me that the most recent available data refers to Quarter Four 2016, which indicates that there were 6,267 children in care, and 2,026 of these children were in voluntary care.

The table displays data which is returned annually in relation to the overall number of children in care and the length of time in care broken down by three time bands