James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am very pleased that the Deputy acknowledges, as do all parents, that the best interests of the child must be paramount. Our problem is that the Russian State has not ratified the Hague Convention. If it had done so, we would not have this issue. The difficulties that are presenting as a consequence of our attempt to arrange a bilateral agreement are very complicated and affect our Constitution. That said, we will continue to work to seek to resolve them. Knowing that parents are keen to adopt, I do not want to leave people with the impression that this matter can be resolved in the shorter term. I have given a realistic timeframe in case anyone would be disadvantaged in adopting by waiting for this issue to be resolved, because that would have been grossly unfair.

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