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Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 6 Oct 1998

Vol. 494 No. 4

Written Answers. - Inter-Country Adoptions.

Jan O'Sullivan

Question:

313 Ms O'Sullivan asked the Minister for Health and Children the plans, if any, he has to bring forward the legislation to ratify the Hague Convention on Inter-Country Adoptions. [18734/98]

Jan O'Sullivan

Question:

316 Ms O'Sullivan asked the Minister for Health and Children the plans, if any, he has to amend adoption legislation to outlaw proxy adoptions as recommended by the Adoption Board in its 1997 annual report. [18752/98]

Jan O'Sullivan

Question:

318 Ms O'Sullivan asked the Minister for Health and Children the current position and status of the family and medical records of children adopted from abroad. [18756/98]

Jan O'Sullivan

Question:

320 Ms O'Sullivan asked the Minister for Health and Children if he will provide details of the procedures the Adoption Board conduct to satisfy itself that the adoption of a child from abroad complies with section 1, paragraph E of the Adoption Act, 1991, before it enters the adoption in the Register of Foreign Adoptions. [18758/98]

Jan O'Sullivan

Question:

321 Ms O'Sullivan asked the Minister for Health and Children if he will give details of the procedures applied by the Adoption Board where it refuses to enter an adoption in the Register of Foreign Adoptions. [18759/98]

I propose to take Questions Nos. 313, 316, 318, 320 and 321 together.

Section 9(4) of the Adoption Act, 1991, provides that where an adoption is effected in a place outside the State, it shall be presumed, until the contrary is shown, that it was effected in accordance with the law of that place. Therefore, the Adoption Board is bound to presume when presented with documentary evidence of a particular adoption effected outside the State that it complies with section 1(e) of the Act until the contrary is shown.

In practice, the board makes its decision on whether or not a particular adoption effected abroad complies with the conditions under 1(a) to 1(e) of the Adoption Act, 1991, by considering the adoption law of the state in which the adoption was effected. It does this by putting a number of questions regarding the nature and effect of an adoption under that country's law to a practising lawyer in that country. Based on the lawyer's replies and having regard to the legislation of that country, it makes a decision as to whether or not adoptions effected in that state qualify for entry in the Register of Foreign Adoptions.

The Adoption Board does not make an entry in the Register of Foreign Adoptions with regard to an application for same by Irish residents where an adoption effected abroad does not meet the conditions I have outlined above and where the applicants were not in possession of a current declaration of suitability and eligibility from the board at the time of the effecting of the adoption.

The Adoption Board maintains a file in relation to every application for entry in the Register of Foreign Adoptions and a copy of all information submitted by the applicant(s) is retained on the file. However, I would point out to the Deputy that the board receives this information from the adoptive parents and not from the foreign adoption authorities.

The drafting of legislation to enable ratification of the Hague Convention on the Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Inter-country Adoption, 1993, is a priority. I have had additional staff assigned to my Department during the summer months and a new child care legislation unit has been established in order to commence work on a number of pieces of legislation including the Hague Convention Bill on which preparatory work has commenced.
The primary objectives of the convention are to provide safeguards to prevent the abduction or sale of children and to establish a system of co-operation among countries in order to ensure that intercountry adoptions take place in the best interests of the children concerned. It strives to achieve this objective by dividing responsibilities with regard to the processing of intercountry adoption between sending and receiving states. It recognises that it is only in this bilateral manner that effective measures to ensure that adoptions take place in the best interests of the children concerned can be put in place.
Ratification of the convention will involve major amendment of our foreign adoption laws. The Law Reform Commission recently published a most useful report on the legislative changes necessary to implement the convention. I intend to build on this report and to take a wideranging approach to the Bill in order to use this legislative opportunity to tackle many of the issues which have arisen in intercountry adoption since the enactment of the Adoption Act, 1991. Issues such as the practice of persons effecting foreign adoptions by power of attorney and not travelling to the child's country of origin, with the consequence that they do not meet the child prior to the effecting of the adoption, are being considered in this context. My Department will be consulting with relevant interests before I finalise decisions regarding the approach to be taken in the Bill.
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