Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)

I have sought to bring urgency to the situation. As Deputy McConalogue pointed out, that is important because there has been a long period of delay for the parents and families who were hoping to adopt from Vietnam. That is the reason I asked officials from my Department and the AAI to visit the country last year to do some preliminary work. When I thought it was appropriate I, too, visited for two and a half days of meetings with the relevant people. The good news from that visit is that Vietnam is prepared to engage with Ireland. It is up to Vietnam to decide whether it wishes to engage with a particular country and it will not necessarily engage with all Hague Convention countries. However, it made clear that it would engage with Ireland. We heard from Deputy Barry about the Vietnamese ambassador to Ireland visiting Charleville to meet families who had adopted children from Vietnam. I met the ambassador on two occasions and he was extremely helpful.

The visit was successful in terms of re-engagement with Vietnam. That country has brought in new adoption legislation and has a new approach and new standards in regard to adoption. It has signed the Hague Convention. We have a new Adoption Act. The memo that went to Government two years ago in regard to this issue stated that when these matters were in place - a new Adoption Act here, the signing of the Hague Convention by Vietnam, and new arrangements in place in that country - the Government would examine the situation again. That is what I have done and I believe I have brought an urgency to it to hurry things up and expedite the opening up of the adoption situation between Ireland and Vietnam.

The next step was to invite the head of the Vietnamese central authority to this country. I do not yet have a date for his visit but I hope it will be in April or May. As soon as that takes place, I believe we will be in a position to finalise some of the outstanding and necessary technical discussions. That is my expectation. I hope this will happen but I am reluctant to give a definite date. The two groups, of 19 and 200 couples, respectively, awaiting adoption from Vietnam have been given many dates and I realise how very difficult this is for them.

Timeframes around adoption have been far too long. I am very dissatisfied with the length of time couples have had to wait for a first assessment. That has changed now but it is unacceptable to have to wait so long. I want to see a more efficient but also a thorough process. It must be both; there is no reason it cannot be both. That is why I stated we need to clarify the situation for couples in respect of the various states we discussed today in the Chamber, namely, Russia, Ethiopia, Florida and Vietnam. That is the reason I asked the Adoption Authority of Ireland to visit all those states to assess the situation. If necessary, I too will visit, but in the first instance it is for the AAI to assess and try to get clarity one way or another. Ireland can either have adoptions with Russia or it cannot. It is the same with Ethiopia.

That is the intention. I hope before the summer period we will have greater clarity on Vietnam and that an agreement can be concluded.

See this speech in context