Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)

At the outset, I wish to thank Deputy Kathleen Lynch for sharing time.

I welcome this long overdue Bill, which updates adoption legislation in this State. It restates or updates the provisions of the Adoption Acts 1952 to 1998 and replaces the Acts themselves with this proposed new Act. In 1996, the Government signed the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption. It is regrettable that it has taken 13 years for the Government to introduce this legislation, which finally will allow it to ratify the convention. It is important to remind oneself what the Hague Convention states. Its preamble recognises that the child "for the full and harmonious development of his or her personality, should grow up in a family environment, in an atmosphere of happiness, love and understanding". The convention recalls that each state should, as a matter of priority, take appropriate measures to enable the child to remain in the care of his or her family of origin but recognises that intercountry adoption may offer the advantage of a permanent family to a child for whom a suitable family cannot be found in his or her state of origin. The parties to the convention state their conviction that it is necessary to take measures to ensure that intercountry adoptions are made in the best interests of the child and with respect for his or her fundamental rights and to prevent the abduction, the sale of, or the traffic in, children.

The Hague Convention is based on the principles of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and the United Nations declaration on social and legal principles relating to the protection and welfare of children with special reference to foster placement and adoption nationally and internationally. The Hague Convention sets out in its first article its objects to be:

a) to establish safeguards to ensure that intercountry adoptions take place in the best interests of the child and with respect for his or her fundamental rights as recognised in international law;

b) to establish a system of co-operation amongst Contracting States to ensure that those safeguards are respected and thereby prevent the abduction, the sale of, or traffic in, children;

c) to secure the recognition in Contracting States of adoptions made in accordance with the Convention.

Sinn Féin fully endorses these principles and objects and welcomes the ratification of the convention.

The most basic principle of all is that the well-being and best interests of the child are paramount whether the adoption is within Ireland or an intercountry adoption. That principle must inform every section and line of this Bill. The reality today is that the vast majority of adoptions in Ireland are intercountry adoptions. This aspect of the Bill looms large and is of concern to the thousands of people who have adopted children from abroad and to the many who are in the process of so doing or who wish to do so in the future.

In Ireland at present, there clearly is more inward adoption, if one can use that term, than outward adoption. This was not the case in the past. It is part of the tragic story of the mistreatment of mothers and children in this State that many young women had their children taken from them against their wills and placed for adoption. This was a society in which women who had children outside marriage were stigmatised and ostracised. Many were put in so-called homes run by religious orders and in many cases their children were taken from them and placed with adoptive families. This was done illegally before the introduction of adoption legislation in 1952. Sadly however, as in so many other areas of social policy, after 1952 when the first option of legislation was introduced, the State abdicated its responsibility to the Catholic Church in many instances and the same unacceptable practices continued.

Much of this tragic story was chronicled in a book by Mike Milotte published in 1997 called Banished Babies: The secret history of Ireland's baby export business. It highlighted the scandal whereby religious orders and others effectively were selling Irish babies to wealthy American couples. When the nuns discovered the huge market for babies in the United States, they set about exploiting it. This system was driven not by the needs of the children and their mothers, but by the demand for babies across the Atlantic and the profits, all too sadly, that could be made from such traffic.

Little or nothing was done to check the suitability of the homes to which children were sent. Ministers and civil servants colluded in this corrupt system and often turned a blind eye to illegalities, including forged birth certificates and dodgy passports. Presiding over the system was Archbishop McQuaid, who ordered a news blackout on the child export trade. It is a measure of his power that his diktats was obeyed by the so-called popular media of the time. Such attitudes and practices have not died out. In 1999, the High Court found that a couple running a pregnancy advice agency had illegally taken two children from their mothers purporting to place them for adoption.

Such things must never be allowed to happen again in Ireland. Equally importantly, Members must ensure that no child who was adopted into Ireland has been separated from his or her mother in such a way. This is the reason strong human rights safeguards are essential, backed up by legislation such as this. That is the reason the Hague Convention is so important and the reason it is important that when making bilateral agreements with other states on intercountry adoptions, we must be satisfied that no such practices pertain in those states. We must ensure that there is no abduction, trafficking or sale of children.

The International Adoption Association (Ireland) has made a detailed submission on this Bill for which I thank it. Together with others, it has welcomed the Bill but also has raised some serious concerns that the Minister of State must take on board and address. The principal concerns raised about this Bill relate to the transition from the old system to the new under this legislation. A legitimate concern exists about what will happen to applicants within the system. Will they be allowed to complete their adoptions under the old system with new applicants commencing under the new dispensation? This point must be fully clarified and I ask the Minister of State to do so at the earliest opportunity. The Bill precludes adoptions from countries that have not signed up to the Hague Convention or from countries with which Ireland does not have bilateral agreements. The difficulty is that, at present, most adoptions come from states that have not signed up to the Hague Convention and with which Ireland does not have bilateral agreements.

In the case of Vietnam, Ireland is in the limbo situation of awaiting a bilateral agreement. The Minister of State with responsibility for children has acknowledged the upset to prospective adoptive parents caused by this situation. All Members are aware of this because such parents are to be found nationwide and they have gone through difficult times. I take this opportunity to urge the Minister of State with responsibility for children to work to resolve the situation as soon as possible. Can the Minister of State tell Members whether it is the case that with the passing of this Bill as it stands, all adoptions from non-Hague and non-bilateral states will close, even if the application process has commenced? If this is the case, the Bill must be amended accordingly and will the Minister of State undertake to sponsor those amendments on Committee Stage?

Another important issue raised concerns the lengthy and inordinate delays in the HSE carrying out assessments of applicants to be adoptive parents. The Hague Convention requires this to be done expeditiously but this is far from the case here. The new Bill also should entail new and better practice in this regard. Finally, I also note the Bill fails to recognise the widening reality of what constitutes a family in Ireland today. Although section 33 states that the only case in which an adoption by more than one person can be recognised is where the applicants are a married couple, the Government intends to legislate for civil partnership and this matter was raised earlier by a Government Deputy. Surely there is need to address all prospective situations that can and do present rather than hiding one's head in the sand. I look forward to the Minister of State addressing this and all the concerns and questions that I and others have raised about this Bill on Second Stage.

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