Brendan Ryan (Dublin North, Labour)

I am grateful for the opportunity to speak on this matter. One aspect of this debate on which I want to focus is how prospective parents are viewed and commented upon both in the national commentary on this issue and sometimes, regrettably, by the Irish State itself. From my experience, adoptive parents are often described as being "desperate". They are portrayed as being so focused on completing an adoption that they have no regard for, or interest in, the ethical issues concerned. This is anything but true. In dealing with inter-country adoption, it has to be noted that nobody is more concerned about ethical issues than the parents involved. I have dealt with a number of parents on this matter and I can certainly vouch for the ethical standard of the people with whom I have dealt. We must remember that these people want to provide a home for a child - a loving, caring and safe home.

The people with whom I have dealt do not want a short cut. They want to assert, in the interests of the child, that the bilateral agreement with Vietnam, which was allowed to lapse during 2009, was a good agreement. During its operation, it was repeatedly represented by the Adoption Board at the time as a model which should be widely followed. It had several layers of safety built into it to protect the rights of both children and birth parents. That the agreement was allowed to lapse left nearly 20 children in an unfortunate limbo whereby their adoptions had been approved but not completed, which was in nobody's interest.

After the agreement had lapsed, the Minister of the day attempted to justify his inaction by referring to the UNICEF report on inter-country adoption and its "profound concerns" about the system that had been in place. This report was primarily concerned with American adoptions, which operated on a very different basis to those taking place under the Irish agreement. The concerns expressed were entirely invalid with respect to Irish adoptions, and the report failed to support its comments in any meaningful way. Repeated reference to the report in this context caused great hurt to adoptive families. To place a question mark over adoptions which are both ethical and legal can only damage the interests of the children involved.

The Minister has every right to defend the Irish adoption system. She is entirely justified in praising our ratification of the Hague convention. However, she must remember that all international agreements need to be constantly reviewed and updated. This will be the same in the future, just as it has been the case in the past. In advocating new agreements, she must show respect too for fully legal and ethical adoptions that have taken place under previous agreements. If she fails to do so, however inadvertently, she may cause great hurt to Irish children and Irish families.

I make my contribution today to highlight the need for the Minister and her Department to be extremely careful in all communications relating to the previous bilateral agreement with Vietnam, and to be mindful of sensitivities of adoptive parents who went through that process. All communications relating to new agreements must be proofed for inappropriate reference to the previous agreement, which was sound and ethical. Any lapse in this matter has the potential to be hurtful and damaging to those families and, with the certainty that anything that is said or published will remain available on the worldwide web forever, the risk is obvious.

I trust the Minister will take on board my comments. Should she require further information or wish to meet with the parents who have contacted me, I would be happy to arrange that.

See this speech in context