Jillian van Turnhout (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. McBride for his presentation and appearing before the committee. I would like to address a wider issue in his presentation that has been raised in the committee before, which is in the area of adoption and the number of prospective adoptive parents who are coming to Tusla. At what point does one actually tell prospective parents the reality of children who are available for adoption under the Hague Convention? All too often, prospective adoptive parents have gone through two years of quite an arduous process for good reasons but are subsequently told there are not the children they foresaw. They foresaw that they would get a baby, whereas the reality under the Hague Convention is that it is likely to be a teenager and more likely to have a disability. At what point are prospective adoptive parents being told the position?

On the issue of open and closed adoption which was mentioned by Mr. McBride in his presentation, I was interested to note that to this day there are parents who request closed adoptions. For me, this is about a child today.

Will the witnesses revert to us with figures on the number of parents who opt for open adoptions, which is how it should be, as opposed to closed adoptions so that we might understand? When we discuss this issue, we too often refer to the negatives. The vast majority of parents I meet do not hesitate to ensure that their children are fully aware of their identities. The parents understand that they have an important role.

We will pursue the issue of compelling reasons in the Bill, as we all share that concern. The bar should be high. I would prefer it not to be included in the legislation but Dr. Geoffrey Shannon, who presented prior to the witnesses, gave us food for thought on how to balance the provision and ring-fence it as the exception.

I was uneasy when the witnesses referred to concerns about the 12 weeks and the transfer of information even though they also mentioned the importance of trust. A part of that trust is built by people believing that they can get the information in a timely manner and that there will not be a bureaucratic fob-off. This is not about the Child and Family Agency but about systems and applications generally. People do not necessarily trust that they will get the information in a timely way. If we do not have a clear timeline, the trust will not be there. While I appreciate the concerns that the witnesses are raising, it affects the question of trust because it indicates that the agency is not sure it can deliver.

My final point is on the transfer of records. We have been made aware that a number of bodies are in the process of transferring records to the agency. Are there issues in that regard with particular statutory, non-statutory or private bodies? How long does this process take? Of what legal issues do we need to be aware in this legislation so as to ensure records are transferred and people do not use spurious reasons to refuse to transfer them?