Ms Maria Corbett:

I thank the committee for the invitation to present today. The Children's Rights Alliance unites over 100 organisations, working together to make Ireland one of the best places in the world to be a child. We aim to improve the lives of all children and young people by campaigning for the full implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and through securing the necessary changes in Ireland's laws, policies and services. We are delighted to be here and to accept this invitation. We have a short period of time and I thought I would touch briefly on three areas: the current adoption system; gaps in the adoption legislation; and the commission of investigation.

On the current adoption system, we would like the discussion to be framed by the right of a child to be adopted. Adoption is the right of the child. Adoption is a pathway to realising a child's right to grow up in a family. When discussing adoption, we may rightly focus on the story of prospective adoptive parents, but we must be careful not to lose sight of the fact that adoption is about children, their rights and needs. Adults do not have an automatic entitlement to adopt a child. I flag that the child's right to adoption is mapped out in Article 21 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which I included as an appendix to the presentation provided to committee members.

Moving on to look at why we need the Hague Convention, unfortunately, at times the adoption system can fall foul to criminal activity, including corruption, deception of birth parents, and the abduction, sale or trafficking of children. Therefore, it is critical that there is a rigorous verification process for all adoptions. The Children's Rights Alliance welcomed the ratification by Ireland of the 1993 Hague Convention, which was brought into law through the Adoption Act 2010. The Hague Convention is the international standard setter and it is the best available framework for managing the risks inherently associated with intercountry adoption.

We are also conscious that the ratification of the Hague Convention has had a profound and personal impact on hundreds of prospective adoptive parents. The number of children available for adoption domestically and internationally has plummeted in recent years and this situation is unlikely to change in the near future. We believe that we need to respond to this in three areas. The first relates to the work of the Child and Family Agency, in terms of it having good communication about the changed circumstances in relation to the Hague Convention with prospective adoptive parents. We believe that there needs to be clarity and a standardised policy on whether prospective adoption parents can undergo fertility treatment or foster while also seeking to adopt. There seems to be inconsistency in practice around the country.

Second, the agency should deliver its child care and adoptions services through one joined-up national service whereby staff would provide assessment and support to both prospective foster and adoptive parents while managing the interplay between the two in the different legal proceedings. We welcome the fact that the Child and Family Agency is raising awareness of fostering opportunities among prospective adoptive families.

Finally, we firmly believe the Hague Convention is the appropriate mechanism for Ireland and we would urge caution on the consideration of entering into bilateral agreements with non-Hague compliant countries. On child protection concerns, we believe the Hague Convention is an essential component of the Irish legal framework and we should not deviate from it.

As I am conscious of time, I will touch briefly on a few areas where I believe there are gaps in the adoption legislation. The first area is information and tracing. I understand the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy Charles Flanagan, commented in his maiden speech on this issue and has committed to prioritising a Bill in this area. This is a pressing issue. Under the UN convention, children have the right to their identity. That right must be respected and mechanisms are needed to ensure that such rights can be fulfilled when the child reaches the age of 18.

The second area is open or semi-open adoption. As the committee will be aware, Ireland operates a closed system of adoption. We believe there needs to be reform to allow for an open adoption system which, we believe, would encourage parents of children who are in the care system to place their children for adoption. We believe this is an important mechanism that would improve the adoption system.

An important piece of legislation, the children and family relationships Bill, was published earlier this year. It addresses an area which can be called either step-parent adoption or second-parent adoption. This is an issue whereby the natural mother of a child, if she wishes for her spouse to adopt her child but the spouse is not the natural father of the child, must give up her own child for adoption and then establish a connection to her child by undergoing a joint adoption with her new spouse. It is a convoluted process. It represents the majority of cases that the Adoption Authority deals with - in 2013, the Adoption Authority processed 116 adoptions, 86 of which were second-parent adoptions. We believe that this is an unnecessary mechanism to establish a connection between a non-biological parent of a child and the child.