asked the Minister for Justice the number of applications for adoption at present under consideration; and the number of infants at present available for adoption.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Adoption Applications.
33.
It is not possible, without the risk of being seriously misleading, to give a figure purporting to represent cases under consideration. The duties and responsibilities of the board are such that an application for an adoption order could not be said, in any realistic sense, to be open to consideration by the board until certain conditions have been fulfilled, additional to the making of the application. For instance, a waiting period of at least several months is necessary before the suitability of the particular applicants to adopt the particular child can be assessed. If the Deputy's question is intended to relate to cases where the necessary waiting period has elapsed and where all necessary consents and other documents have been obtained, I am informed that the position is that the board is not in arrears at all except of course to the unavoidable extent that, at any given time, cases are coming forward for decision between one meeting of the board and the next suitable meeting. By "suitable" meeting, I mean, a meeting that suits the applicants.
No figures are available to me or to the board as to children "available for adoption" but, while availability for adoption is not a simple clear-cut concept that could readily be translated into a statistic, it is common knowledge amongst those involved in adoption work that there are waiting lists of suitable applicants.
When the Minister speaks about the number of infants available for adoption surely he is aware that there are Lenehan, Boland, Blaney and Haughey—four babies available for adoption at the present time?
Is the Minister aware that couples in the lower income group who apply to the board feel that they are discriminated against because of their income, or lack of it? That point was put to me on a number of occasions.
That does not arise on this question but there is absolutely no evidence of it. None whatever. Everybody gets an equal hearing from the board.
Would it be appropriate to ask the Minister if he could give some indication of the growth of adoptions in recent years?
The number of orders made has increased in almost every year. It went back a bit in 1968-69 and was up again in 1970. The report with the 1970 figure has not been published yet. It is with the printers and will be out in about a week. Since 1963 the number of orders made each year was 840, 1,003, 1,049, 1,078, 1,493, 1,343, 1,225 and 1,414.
Can the Minister say if the information available to the child welfare officer in a local authority is complete?
Which information?
The child welfare officers usually have something to do with adoptions. They are officers of the local authorities. Would their information be complete?
It would, yes.
Would the Minister not be able to get that from the local authorities?
In their own locality they would know who was seeking to adopt children and presumably they would know what children were available, but that is something which, naturally, changes from day to day.
Unemployment changes from day to day but we can still get the figures.
Question No. 34.