Joe Carey (Clare, Fine Gael)

I welcome the opportunity to contribute on this important Bill. Many Deputies in this house have received correspondence on the bilateral agreement with Vietnam, which has been allowed to lapse since May. No interim arrangements were put in place while we waited for the incorporation of the Hague Convention into our adoption legislation.

It beggars belief that the Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children knowingly allowed this agreement to peter out over the previous 12 months without doing anything. The worst aspect was his inability to communicate with prospective adoptive parents. I have been contacted by a number of families in County Clare about the issue. They are concerned that the lack of communication from the Minister of State's office implies a serious lack of urgency.

Between 400 and 500 declarations of suitability are issued annually by the Adoption Board. To my knowledge, 20 people are at an advanced stage in the process of intercountry adoption with Vietnam. I am glad the Minister of State acknowledged the debacle that has occurred this year but his admission is of little comfort to those who have been so badly affected. Ireland signed the Hague Convention in 1996 but we are only now getting around to the issue of a child centred adoption process. Substantial elements of our legislation were introduced through Private Members' motions tabled by my colleague, Deputy Alan Shatter, who has professional expertise in family law. The Minister should use the contributions made by the Deputy throughout the process of adopting this Bill on Committee Stage.

The assessment process proposed in the Bill regarding the suitability to adopt appears ridiculous in that it can take a couple or individual up to three or four years to be assessed. It must be recognised that people now marry and start families at a later age in life. Prospective parents, through no fault of their own, can become bogged down in our system and may be deemed unsuitable to adopt on age grounds or simply because the system is slow. Waiting times for assessment need to be reduced. In addition, those who have been assessed for adoption should not be scrutinised each time they subsequently seek to adopt. There is no legitimate reason not to reflect in the adoption process the reality that couples have children later in life and life expectancy for both men and women is increasing.

Social workers are supposed to carry out between 18 and 20 assessments per annum. The current average of between eight and ten assessments per annum indicates that there is a problem with the process. The timeframe for completing assessments also varies geographically. A person who lives in one part of the country could have an assessment completed in between 12 and 18 months, while a person living in another location could wait for up to five years for an assessment to be completed. This is a disgraceful and wholly unacceptable discrepancy which must be addressed in the legislation. We must not have a nod and wink approach or the use in the legislation of the phrase "as soon as practicable" in connection with the completion of assessments.

A "grandfather clause", as recommended by the Law Reform Commission, is not included in the Bill. As the legislation stands, families who have adopted a child from a country which falls outside the restrictions are prevented from adopting a second child from the country in question. In many cases those involved in inter-country adoption seek to build families with more than one child from the same country or with a similar background and experience. The absence of a grandfather clause could result in children being precluded from growing up with a sibling who shares his or her culture and comes from their country of origin. This restriction would not serve the best possible interest of the adopted child who lives in a family which wishes to adopt a second child from the same country. The absence of a grandfather clause could also mean that if a biological sibling were to become available for adoption, the parents would not be able to adopt the sibling. The Minister must consider this discrepancy and amend the Bill accordingly. Many Deputies argued in favour of the inclusion of a grandfather clause.

We have an opportunity to establish robust adoption legislation, both from an inter-country perspective and in terms of domestic processes and laws relating to children and parents. The Bill, as proposed, has many shortcomings and is not particularly comprehensive. I hope that during its time in the Oireachtas it will be developed and improved.

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