asked the Minister for Justice if he will give details of the information normally required by the Adoption Board in the registration of adoption societies, pursuant to section 36 of the Adoption Act, 1952; if the registration of any adoption society has been cancelled in the last five years, pursuant to section 37 of the Act; and, if so, on what said grounds; and if he will give details of the regularity and extent of inspections of adoption societies, pursuant to section 38 of the Act.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Adoption Societies.
5.
The information which must be given by an adoption society when applying to An Bord Uchtála for registration is set out in the Adoption Rules, 1976, (S.I. No. 216 of 1976). Those rules include a prescribed form of application, namely Form 8, which sets out the details required of an applicant society.
The Board have not cancelled the registration of any adoption society in the last five years.
As regards the last part of the question. I think there may be a misunderstanding. The board are not dependent on the powers of inspection in section 38 which are not general powers of inspection but powers that relate only to the inspection of books and documents in the possession or control of an adoption society. The extent to which the board may exercise the particular powers conferred by section 38 is a matter for the board and I do not think it either necessary or appropriate to ask for information about it as it is not in fact a measure of the extent of the board's supervisory work in relation to adoption societies. The board's duty to supervise those societies is not exercised primarily by formal inspection of books but by a combination of means including periodic general inspections, by which I mean inspections of a wider nature than just an examination of books or documents and, most important of all, through the constant contacts that take place between the board and the various societies in the course of the day-to-day discharge of the board's general functions. In fact, the nature of the board's duties in relation to individual applications for adoption orders is such that the board are kept continuously aware of the standards of work of the various societies and are, therefore, in a position to take action if that should be needed at any time.