First, I would like to thank you, Sir, for giving me the opportunity to raise this issue. More than 400 Romanian children have been adopted by Irish couples. Most of these adoptions took place in the 1990-91 period. In many cases children were rescued by Irish couples from absolutely appalling conditions. Many of those children would probably not be alive today if they had remained in Romania.
It was a cause of great concern to read in our newspapers yesterday a report, which apparently received the imprimatur of the Minister of State at the Department of Health, Deputy Willie O'Dea, that 18 children have been abandoned by their adoptive parents and placed in the care of health boards. I was pleased that last night the Minister for Health issued a statement to the effect that that is not the case. However, the confusion was compounded by a report in The Irish Press today in which unnamed social worker sources say that the Minister is wrong. Either the Minister of State or the Minister is wrong.
It is most dangerous for any Minister to jump to precipitate conclusions on an issue such as this because it casts a shadow over what has happened in this area. It is my information that the vast majority of Romanian children adopted by Irish couples have settled in well and are receiving loving care within the families into which they have been adopted. It is true that a small number of such children have experienced difficulties which derive from the conditions under which they lived. The parents of these children have utilised the resources of their local health boards in dealing with those problems. I am not aware of a single case of a parent who adopted a child in Romania who subsequently abandoned that child to the permanent care of the health board. A whispering campaign, supported by the Minister of State, suggesting that that is the case not merely casts a shadow over the hundreds of Irish couples who successfully adopted in Romania but poses a major problem for other Irish couples who may seek to adopt in Romania or other foreign countries in the future because it will give rise to a suspicion in those countries that there is a danger that Irish couples who adopt children abroad may abandon them in Ireland. I emphasise that I do not know of any instance in which this has happened.
I am concerned that this report has come from unnamed social worker sources. Social workers in each of the health boards throughout the country have done a vast amount of good work in carrying out assessments to assist couples who wish to adopt children abroad to comply with the Adoption Act, 1991. Since I published that measure as a Private Members' Bill it has been my experience that within the group of professional social workers a small number seem to have a personalised, ideological fixation with the idea that in no circumstances should a couple living in Ireland adopt outside Ireland, that this is to be seriously discouraged. While most health boards have been helpful to couples who wish to adopt abroad in the future and have carried out assessments, the behaviour of one health board has left a number of questions to be answered. It seems that its approach more often has been to seek to discourage adoptions in these circumstances than to encourage them.
I hope the Minister will put to bed these reports once and for all and clarify the position. He must seek to remove the slur that has been cast on the hundreds of Irish couples who have adopted Romanian and other children abroad, who feel that their reputation is being impunged and that their care for these children is being questioned. I look forward to the Minister's response.
