Tommy Broughan (Dublin Bay North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

As Deputy Clare Daly is not present, I will share my time with Deputy Catherine Connolly.

I am delighted to have the opportunity to make some brief remarks about this important Bill. First, I take the opportunity to wish the new Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the best in her role and urge her to work closely with her colleague, the new Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Simon Coveney. I know that she will try to hit the ground running, but the Government has a huge task to try to end the practice whereby thousands of children are living in highly inappropriate hotel rooms, guesthouses and bed and breakfast accommodation. The Minister may remember that I brought the issue of the living conditions of these vulnerable homeless children to the attention of the Children's Ombudsman approximately one year ago and also to that of the Children's Rights Alliance. I hope speedy action will be taken on the issue by the Government.

I welcome the Adoption (Amendment) Bill 2016 which seeks to increase eligibility for adoption by updating the previous adoption laws. The Bill seeks to amend the Adoption Act 2010 by providing for the repeal of sections 24 and 25, as well as of Part 11 of the Children and Family Relationships Act 2015. Under this comprehensive Bill, married parents will be able to place a child for adoption and definitions will be inserted to encompass the broadened scope of families in Ireland, with civil partnerships and cohabiting couples being included. We have been working towards such a Bill for over 20 years, as the rights of the child have, thankfully, become paramount to policy design and development than in the earlier history of the State. The State belatedly began to make progress towards this Bill by ratifying the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1992, which meant that children's views had to be taken into consideration in dealing with issues affecting them. Subsequently the Government developed a number of strategies for children. The establishment of the Department of Children and Youth Affairs in 2011 was a key turning point. We ratified the Hague Convention in 2010 to provide for standards for inter-country adoptions and in 2011 published Children First: National Guidance for the Protection and Welfare of Children, which was adopted through the Children First Act 2015. The referendum on children's rights at the end of 2012 resulted in the insertion of Article 42A into Bunreacht na hÉireann, which provides for "the rights and protection of all children". Regrettably, the turnout of voters in the referendum was very poor, given the litany of revelations about the abuse of children in State, religious and civic society institutions. The insertion of the article in the Constitution required legislation. This Bill seeks to address the provisions on adoption and provides for implementation of the referendum decision.

I welcome the amendments to the principal Act, whereby definitions will be updated to more accurately reflect the landscape of families in Ireland. Section 10 of the Bill provides for the amendment of section 20 of the principal Act, substituting the term "a married couple" with "a married couple, a couple who are civil partners of each other or a cohabiting couple". I particularly welcome section 12 which amends section 23 of the principal Act through the insertion of section 23(1)(a)(ii), increasing the maximum age at which a child can be adopted from seven years of age to 18. I also welcome the provisions on same sex couples to enable them to adopt. This further strengthens our acceptance and understanding of families headed by same-sex couples following that historic day, almost exactly one year ago, when the country overwhelmingly voted in favour of marriage equality.

Section 25 also rectifies the situation where, when a step-parent wants to adopt a child, the birth parent also has to adopt his or her own child, by amending section 58 of the principal Act. The previous section 58 created a ridiculous anomaly, where partners of step-parents who wished to adopt their child lost their parental rights and then had to adopt their own child to regain their parental rights.

I note that there does not seem to be any provision in the Bill to address the issue of "closed" adoption. Have we not learned from mistakes of the past that people need access to their identity and medical records? Without addressing the issue of "closed" adoption and replacing it with best practice "open" adoption, we are merely continuing the mistakes of the past which involved secrecy. This aspect of the Bill needs to be examined and clarified.

When Deputy Frances Fitzgerald was the first Minister in the Department, I questioned her many times about appropriate adoption information and tracing services in place for citizens who wished to seek to trace their relatives. She made several commitments to place adoption information and tracing provisions on a statutory footing. The Adoption (Tracing and Information) Bill was on the clár in the last session of the 31st Dáil and the new Minister now has responsibility for bringing it forward and its implementation.

On a number of occasions the former Minister, Deputy Frances Fitzgerald, detailed for me the work of the National Adoption Contact Preference Register, NACPR, run by the Adoption Authority of Ireland. She informed me that large volumes of files on adoptions that had been transferred to the HSE had not been processed up to the end of 2013. This led to many adopted persons experiencing huge difficulties in obtaining any information on their natural relatives. I indicated my concern at the time at the low level of resources committed to the Adoption Information and Tracing Service. Perhaps this is something the new Minister might address in the context of this legislation.

I draw the Minister's attention to some concerns my colleagues and I have about section 14 which provides that the "High Court may give custody of a child to prospective adopters and authorise dispensing with consent to adoption". The section substitutes section 31 of the principal Act and relates to cases where consent for adoption has not been given or has been given and subsequently withdrawn. Under the Bill, should such circumstances arise, applicants for adoption could apply for an order to the High Court. I assume the section will be examined and, perhaps, amended on Committee Stage to strengthen the provisions to ensure social workers and other relevant professionals give their input, with, of course, that of the child. This relates to section 23 which amends section 54(2) of the principal Act which, again, relates to so-called "parental failure". The previous speaker also referred to this section, whereby the State acts as guardian of the common good. These concerns will probably give rise to amendments from colleagues on Committee Stage.

I am sure the Minister is aware of the historic, valuable and positive research launched today in the Mansion House by the Preparing for Life programme of the Northside Partnership, in conjunction with the Geary Institute for Public Policy at UCD. The research shows dramatic improvements in children's IQ, obesity levels and social skills resulting from the parent and family intervention programme carried out in Dublin 5 and 17 by the Preparing for Life programme under its manager Mr. Noel Kelly. This intervention programme follows many similar initiatives led by him and his Northside Partnership colleagues in the past 15 years. This proven intervention which was costed at a modest €2,000 per family per year to deliver could be a model for many other communities in both urban and rural Ireland.

On my own behalf and that of my colleagues, I welcome the Bill.

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