Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Much of it is modular and weekend work. We believe and have evidence that the sector will have time before September 2015 to upskill. We are introducing some transitional arrangements for staff who have been in the sector for a long period which will not be quite as intensive as the requirements to be met by those who are new to the sector. Six to eight months, perhaps up to one year, generally is the training time involved. By September 2015 they will be in a position to have undertaken the training. Obviously, we can keep the position under review.

I will briefly inform the committee about the up-to-date position on inter-country adoption. When Laura Martínez-Mora from the Hague conference was in Dublin this week, she spoke about the international position on inter-country adoption. Senator Jillian van Turnhout referred to some of the figures. Ms Martínez-Mora said - this is quite startling - that inter-country adoption was about older children with special needs and that the children in institutions and orphanages around the world who needed families were older and had special needs. There is a very big emphasis in the conference on preparing adoptive parents to understand this and realise the inherent challenges involved.

For many of the parents who have been assessed in Ireland, that is not what they were expecting when they started the assessment process. I agree with the Deputy that there is a mismatch between the expectations of many parents and the children who are currently available for adoption internationally. Having said that, children are being adopted into Ireland and are finding loving families. For example, an agreement was reached with Vietnam recently which means that approximately ten adoptions of children will go through. I will not comment individually on cases but I gather the process is under way. We have a very good working arrangement with Vietnam, as indeed we have with a number of other countries.

The number of children for adoption is nothing like what it was in the past. During the late 1990s and early 2000s there was a very big increase in the number of adoptions but that is not the situation now. I do not want administrative barriers or inefficiencies to delay adoptions here. I also do not want people to suffer from poor communication by the AAI or anyone else. I have said this to the authority and asked it to examine administrative delays, if any, so that cases in the system can be processed quickly and progressed, because delays are very stressful for parents.

India closed inter-country adoption for a period. I understand India is now only open to the adoption of special needs children. A number of Irish parents want to adopt from India. Over the past number of months the AAI, at my urging, has put an agency in place to deal with adoptions, and packs are on their way to India. I met the Ireland-India group, with my officials, and the adoption authority a few weeks ago in order to deal with the outstanding issues and the concerns that the group felt about delays. Internationally, everyone is agreed that inter-country adoptions now take much longer than they ever have. It is also very striking that India, Vietnam and China have far more domestic adoptions than before, which means that young babies who would previously have been abandoned are now being adopted.

One of the problems and a reason for the change in statistics - although we are at the midpoint of the year - is that the countries from which people in Ireland have traditionally adopted were non-Hague countries, primarily Russia and Ethiopia, and the countries that are Hague-compliant do not have as many children available for adoption. It was also stressed at the conference repeatedly that we must be careful about crime, child trafficking and making sure that parental consent is given. In the past Ireland was a sending country, which means we sent children for adoption, so we know the difficulties that created for some children, but many children got very good homes. Ireland is now a receiving country, so we must be careful to ensure that children really are available for adoption. This matter is difficult for the thousand families concerned because the number of children available will be low this year. However, there is an automatic right to assessment for adoption in this country. I have asked the Child and Family Agency to be clear with parents or potential adopters about the current situation with inter-country adoption because I do not want their expectations to be raised. I also do not want them to endure an extremely stressful process if it will not lead to adoption.

I have dealt with the question on vetting.