Barry Andrews (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

I will give heed to the Deputy's information. I am sorry if I seemed overly defensive, but I am being portrayed in a certain light in this Chamber. I am entitled to defend myself. I am absolutely sympathetic to the points being made so articulately by Deputy Burton and have no argument with what she has said. I want to proceed on the legislation in question as soon as we are finished with the Adoption Bill, which was designed to deal with the question of the consolidation of the old legislation and the Hague Convention. I propose to move on the issues and Deputy Shatter asked when that would happen. I will begin straight after completion of this Bill, but I cannot give a categorical date for when the new legislation will be completed. It is overly pessimistic to suggest that if there is an election in two years, it will not be completed by then.

On the question of adoptions from Russia, I met Russian authorities in my office about three weeks ago and discussed what was required. Every effort is being made to ensure that post placement reports are provided by every couple who signed affidavits to say they would provide them. I have made announcements in that regard and the HSE and Adoption Board are working hard to try to secure them. The Russian authorities, that is the embassy officials here in Dublin, are anxious to sort the problem out and we will continue to work with them to achieve that.

The Government is committed to bringing forward legislation on information and tracing. While this is a sensitive area, it deserves legislation in and of itself.

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