Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I must point out the paradox in the Deputy's question in that he is asking me to deal with particular cases in regard to a country with which we do not have a bilateral agreement and which is a non-Hague country, namely, Russia. At the same time, the Deputy is questioning why I might want to examine the implications of bilaterals.

First, there is no question of moving away from the Hague standards. Second, the Deputy asked what are the other areas in regard to the 2010 legislation. This is one part on which I commented but many other areas are just as critical, such as dealing with step-parent adoption, which has thrown up many anomalies in this country, the rights of birth mothers and birth fathers, issues relating to the right to an assessment, the age limit of prospective adoption parents, the ten years of declaration of eligibility and suitability, and issues relating to the habitual residence of applicants.

As the Deputy said, adoption is a very complex area and this is the range of issues which have been brought to my attention. I did not say I was going to change the section in regard to bilaterals. I merely raised the point that we are the only country that has this in our legislation and it is extremely restrictive because, for example, I am currently trying to negotiate with Russia and there are constitutional issues which arise in regard to some of the demands the Russians are making of us concerning post-placement reports. I am merely highlighting that these are the countries Irish parents adopted from for so long, and the Deputy is making representations today about a non-Hague country - Russia. I am simply pointing out the difficulties.

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