Seanad debates
Friday, 20 December 2013
Adoption (Amendment) Bill 2013: Second Stage
10:30 am
Feargal Quinn (Independent) | Oireachtas source
The Minister is dressed today in Santa Claus colours and she looks very well, if I may say so. She is actually acting as Santa Clause to a number of families. I was not sure of how many were involved but it is 23.
The families that I got to know who were at this stage were at the point of almost giving up hope, but they never did. I recall seeing one of my daughters with her first child. My daughter was obviously enjoying the child, who was about six months old, when she asked us, "Do you think she knows how much I love her?" I had that same sense of love from these families. The family mentioned by Senator White had bonded with Alex, the child they were adopting. They had gone to Russia and went through the entire process. They had got to know him. Actually, it was not just a process of knowing him but of bonding with him-----
Susan Lohan
Posted on 20 Mar 2014 4:47 pm (Report this comment)
Senator Quinn - I am wholeheartedly shocked at your very inappropriate comments linking Santa Claus & the procurement of children for Irish adults . Some of us who have worked for decades in highlighting criminality in Irish adoption know all too well how ICA is now regarded as an adult right to a child rather than a child's right to an overseas family ONLY WHEN all domestic avenues have been exhausted. You should read articles by Alexandria Yuster, a senior advisor on child protection with UNICEF, who argues that international adoption is now more about finding children for first world parents than finding homes for children. Also anything by Nigel Cantwell on the tendency for corrupt and impoverished countries to "create orphans" in exchange for hard currency.
Am rendered speechless......