Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 25 Feb 1998

Vol. 487 No. 7

Written Answers. - Foreign Adoptions.

Alan Shatter

Question:

237 Mr. Shatter asked the Minister for Health and Children the length or time either his Department or the Adoption Board has been seeking to secure an expert opinion from a lawyer in Guatemala on the adoption law of that jurisdiction; if that opinion has yet been received; if the opinion is not yet available, whether the assistance of the Department of Foreign Affairs has been sought in order to expedite its receipt; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5293/98]

Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children (Mr. Fahey)

Since December 1993 the Adoption Board has made numerous efforts to secure an expert opinion from Guatemalan lawyers on the adoption law in that jurisdiction. The board has written directly to the Guatemalan Law Society and to the Guatemalan Embassy in London in an effort to secure a reliable expert opinion. However, no response has been received to date. The Department of Foreign Affairs was also contacted in this matter and following contact with the Guatemalan Embassy, London, it furnished the Adoption Board with a list of Guatemalan lawyers who could be contacted for an opinion. The board has written to these lawyers but, unfortunately, they have not responded.

The Adoption Board then wrote once again to the Guatemalan Embassy in London in October 1997 and January 1998 seeking their assistance in this matter. To date the board has not received a response. The Adoption Board, with the assistance of the Department of Foreign Affairs, will continue to seek an expert opinion from Guatemala.

Alan Shatter

Question:

238 Mr. Shatter asked the Minister for Health and Children the number of applications for entry in the registry of foreign adoptions which have been refused recognition by the Adoption Board since the Adoption Act, 1991 came into effect, solely on the grounds that the foreign adoptions concerned did not have essentially the same legal effect as respects the termination and creation of parental rights and duties in the places where they were effected as an adoption order made by the adoption boards; the number of these refusals made to application from personnel ordinarily resident in this State; and the proposals, if any, he has to reform the law in this area. [5294/98]

Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children (Mr. Fahey)

I have been in contact with the Adoption Board in this matter and have been advised that the number of applications for entry in the register of foreign adoptions which have been refused recognition by the board, on the grounds outlined by Deputy Shatter, is five.

The question of the recognition of such adoptions — known as simple adoptions — will be considered in the Bill to ratify the Hague Convention on the Protection of Children and co-operation in respect of Intercountry Adoption.