Derek McDowell (Labour)

There is a temptation to chuckle, as some did, when Senator Walsh makes certain comments. Many adoptive parents would find offensive the notion that they go away to enjoy a few glasses of Chianti while checking out India, China or Siberia and considering whether they might like to adopt a child. That is not the way it happens. Adoptive parents undergo a serious, lengthy and tedious procedure in their dealings with authorities in these countries. They then have to undergo a process of familiarising themselves with the legal system and perhaps meeting the child and with individuals, the equivalent perhaps of our social workers, who check them out. That is no holiday. The notion that a person wishing to go to India on holidays would tell his or her boss he or she was going there to check out adoption procedures is unfounded. It does not happen that way.