Vol. 408 No. 1
139 Mr. Callely asked the Minister for Health if his attention has been drawn to the long delays and difficulties being experienced in obtaining social workers' reports when couples are adopting Romanian babies; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
I am aware that people wishing to adopt children abroad had been experiencing difficulty in obtaining home study reports required by the foreign authorities. This matter has been addressed in the Adoption Bill, 1990. That Bill imposes a statutory duty on the health boards to carry out assessments of the suitability of prospective adopters. The health boards have already been asked to begin carrying out these assessments in anticipation of the early enactment of the legislation. The boards have also been requested to nominate contact persons for the purposes of the new procedures.
The new procedures will facilitate the adoption of foreign children by suitable people. At the same time it must be appreciated that the assessment reports will take some time to complete. The assessment of the suitability of the proposed adopters provides an important safeguard for the welfare of the child and the standard of the assessments to be undertaken by the health boards will be equivalent to that applicable in the case of a domestic adoption. Our concern must be to ensure that foreign children are not regarded as second class children. This approach is fully in accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
