Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 9 Nov 1999

Vol. 510 No. 3

Written Answers. - Inter-Country Adoptions.

Gay Mitchell

Ceist:

231 Mr. G. Mitchell asked the Minister for Health and Children his views on waiting times for inter-country adoptions arising from assessment procedures; the consideration, if any, he has given to the licensing of private agencies to carry out this work; and if he has had this matter examined in detail. [23097/99]

Trevor Sargent

Ceist:

284 Mr. Sargent asked the Minister for Health and Children if he will consider allowing the licensing of private agencies to carry out the work of assessment in inter-country adoption applications in view of the fact the health boards are overburdened and unable to deal satisfactorily and speedily with this work. [22649/99]

Minister for Health and Children (Mr. Cowen)

I propose to take Questions Nos. 231 and 284 together.

The Deputy will be aware that I have already given details in the House of the steps I have taken to improve assessment procedures for inter-country adoption. As well as the publication of the consultancy report "Towards a Standardised Framework for Inter-country Adoption Assessment Procedures", I have established a group to oversee the implementation of the report and allocated an additional £500,000 this year to the inter-country adoption service.

The implementation group has begun the work of prioritising the issues to be dealt with and is taking steps to ensure that the standardised framework of assessment laid out in the report will be put in place as soon as possible. This includes the provision of a seminar to all workers in ICA before the end of the year; the commissioning of a detailed training manual for all stages of the framework as well as back-up documentation for prospective adoptive parents.

Under the existing legislation adoption assessments may be carried out by health boards and adoption societies registered with the Adoption Board. Any society may apply to the Adoption Board for registration under the Adoption Act, 1952, sections 34 to 39, as amended, which prescribe the criteria to be met for registration. The issue of accreditation of agencies generally is being considered as part of the Department's deliberations on the ratification of the Hague Convention on Inter-country Adoption.

However, based on the increase in staff assigned to inter-country adoption assessment, as well as the introduction of a standardised framework model, it is hoped that there will be a significant improvement in the number of assessments being completed during the year 2000.