Vol. 502 No. 3
373 Mr. J. Mitchell asked the Minister for Health and Children if he will make a statement on the Interdepartmental Committee on Paraguayan Adoptions, including the membership of the committee and the Departments or agencies they represent; if he has received either an interim or final report from the committee; and, if so, if he will publish such a report. [8066/99]
The Interdepartmental Committee on Paraguayan Adoptions established in late 1996 first met in December 1996. The committee consisted of representatives from the Departments of Health and Children, Education and Science, Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Foreign Affairs, Social, Community and Family Affairs and the Office of the Attorney General. The committee was chaired by an Assistant Secretary from the Department of Health and Children and was established to examine both the legal position with regard to simple Paraguayan adoptions and the practical difficulties being encountered by families who adopted children from Paraguay. I did not receive a formal report from the committee, but my officials briefed me on its conclusions.
The committee found no practical problems being encountered by these children in the area of access to child benefit, health and education services. The committee could not address the legal and practical problems relating to citizenship and inheritance rights as these were matters that could only be resolved in the overall context of having the simple Paraguayan adoptions effected by Irish residents converted into full adoptions under Paraguayan law.
A number of parents of adopted Paraguayan children are currently pursuing the conversion of their simple adoptions to full adoptions under Paraguayan law and I have made every effort to assist them with this undertaking. I have written to the Paraguayan courts in support of their case and provided statements on Irish law on the recognition of foreign adoptions as required by their Paraguayan lawyer. My officials also met with representatives of the Parents of Adopted Paraguayan Children, in February 1999 to consult them on the proposals for the legislation to ratify the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoptions.
