Barry Andrews (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

I refer to the Vietnam issue. I have no wish to go into specifics and I have stated as much to representatives of the group. I have sought the view of the Attorney General and his office. We have been through this for so long and we have built up people's expectations. I have sought the advice of the Attorney General in a letter sent some ten days or two weeks ago. The matter involves the Department of Foreign Affairs and my office. A great deal of thought has gone into the matter with advice from the Adoption Board and the Hague Convention to try to effect a satisfactory situation. We are on notice of inadequacies in the Vietnamese adoptions processes. We have tried to effect even greater safeguards in terms of obtaining consents and in respect of financial contributions. These issues have been raised legitimately by international child protection experts in respect of Vietnam. Vietnam co-operated fully with the inquiries made by UNICEF and ISS, International Social Services, on its behalf an accepted those findings. This is what we are at. The gesture was made on the understanding that we were proceeding to a bilateral agreement and in the absence of that agreement the difficulty arose.

Deputy Jan O'Sullivan raised the issue of declarations and whether they would continue. Under section 41, these declarations will run from the establishment day, that is, up to two years and up to a further 12 months at the discretion of the authority. My information is that there is no change to this and that the concerns expressed are unfounded. I do not accept the proposed amendments. I believe we have struck the right balance in terms of the concerns genuinely expressed by prospective adoptive parents in respect of the length of time associated with the application process, in trying to ensure we have a robust system and the least possible dilution of the original intention of the Bill.

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