Ciarán Cuffe (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)

The Green Party welcomes the Bill which is a step in the right direction in terms of modernising and improving the rights of adoptive parents. I note it follows the recommendations made by the working group and in that regard improves maternity protection legislation.

I have not had a chance to compare and contrast what is offered by the legislation and what is available abroad. I have briefly examined similar entitlements in the UK. It appears we are not going as far as the UK in certain instances. For instance, in the UK adoptive parents are entitled to two periods of 26 weeks to be taken as the parents wish. While I did not examine the issue in great detail I believe we should try to at least be equal to the UK in that regard and should perhaps look further afield at Scandinavia and go a little further towards meeting what is available there.

I was struck by the references in the Bill to gender which, it appears, stems from the principal legislation which places strong emphasis on the different roles of mother and father. I accept that may be the case in terms of the mother giving birth but when considering adoptive parents we should perhaps remove the references to gender as it may well be that the father is the primary carer. We should anticipate that likelihood and should gender-proof the legislation to allow either parent to take on that responsibility. We should also look ahead to a day when we need not consider gender as two men or two women seek to adopt a child. The legislation should anticipate such a situation.

I welcome the two-week increase in adoptive leave entitlements. The provision allowing employees to attend pre-adoption meetings makes a great deal of sense, particularly given that more than half the adoptions in Ireland are of children from abroad, with which comes enormous requirements to travel, language difficulties and financial issues. The picture on the front page of a newspaper earlier this week of the Taoiseach with five mothers with newly adopted Vietnamese children illustrates how important is the need to cater for those adopting from abroad. I can only imagine the Taoiseach was feeling a little broody following the taking of that picture given the charming faces of children and parents beaming into the camera.

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