Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

The other amendments deal with the issue of consent. Our process of adoption is a two-prong one when it comes to domestic adoptions. The mother signs an agreement to place, the child is placed with the adopters and after a reasonable period of time has elapsed and all assessments as to how the child is getting on have been completed, the mother is then asked to sign what is termed the final consent. Even after the final consent is signed she can still change her mind but it is only after the final consent is signed that the Adoption Board make the adoption order. My proposal states that where there is a final consent, it may be withdrawn within four months of being given but it shall be irrevocable thereafter. There would not be an open-ended period.

The final consent comes after the agreement to place. I suspect, frankly, that if the Minister of State was willing to accept the amendment with regard to the agreement to place we might not need the second amendment. On the basis that he probably will not accept the first amendment, I tabled the second one in any case so that the consent issue and the entitlement to withdraw a consent already given are not open-ended. It must be borne in mind that by the time four months have passed after the so-called final consent, which is a euphemism because it is not final until the adoption order is made, a minimum period of at least 12 months and possibly two to three years will have elapsed since the agreement to place. Very often it is 18 months.

I suggest that we should not have open-ended agreements and consents, all of which can be revoked, regardless of the time that passes. One of the reasons that adoptions have been delayed on occasions has been simply because mothers have disappeared and consent has not been signed. That prolongs the issue of the agreement. If a mother disappears, she needs to know that after 12 months her agreement cannot be revoked.

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