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]
Vol. 494 No. 4
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]
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]
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]
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]
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.