Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his reply. I welcome the progress that is being made on the ongoing negotiations on the bilateral agreement and I hope the concerns of the Russian authorities about post-placement reports can be resolved in the context of the constitutional provisions on the family and so on. I believe that if there is a willingness on both sides, an agreement can be successfully concluded. However, I must place on record my deep dissatisfaction with the comment in the reply that the Minister, Deputy Fitzgerald, has no plans to extend the provision any further for those pre-Hague Convention couples who have up to 31 October to effect an adoption. Some couples have been engaged in this process for many years - in some cases, for more than a decade - and, leaving aside everything else, they have invested an enormous amount emotionally in this roller coaster. They have been tossed from Russia to China and back in circumstances in which where they were not always in control of events and they are now on the cusp of effecting legal adoptions, but the process may not be concluded by 31 October. In order words, a couple that have literally seen, held and bonded with a child may now find the child taken from their grasp. My request in respect of them is a simple proposal. Surely it is within the capacity of the Department to effect an in-process grace period for them if they can prove they have a referral and have registered in the courts for the necessary legal steps to be completed. Surely it is within the capacity of the Department to deal with those circumstances. There are a handful of these couples in the country. This would not be a dangerous legal precedent and it is the humanitarian thing to do.

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