Tom Parlon (Laois-Offaly, Progressive Democrats)

I reject the amendment. The Adoptive Leave Act 1995 already makes provision for leave prior to placement in the case of a foreign adoption. Section 8 of the 1995 Act provides that in the case of a foreign adoption, an employed adopting mother or sole male adopter may avail of some or all of her eight weeks additional unpaid adoptive leave prior to the placement of the child for familiarisation purposes. Section 11 makes similar provisions for an employed adoptive father in circumstances where the adopting mother dies.

Section 7 of the Bill already provides in the case of both domestic and foreign adoptions for paid time off for employees to attend the pre-adoption classes or meetings which they are obliged to attend as part of the pre-adoption process. It was never intended that this entitlement would extend to overseas meetings and subsection (4), introduced by a Government amendment on Committee Stage, makes this clear. While Senator Terry's proposed amendment would ensure that an employer would not incur costs where placement did not occur, it strays beyond the agreement made in regard to this matter during consultations with the social partners.

During these consultations, there was no consensus on extending a paid leave entitlement to adoptive parents for time spent abroad as part of the foreign adoption process, which the Minister, Deputy McDowell, argued on Committee Stage would impose an unacceptable cost on employers, particularly small employers. Equally, there was no agreement among the social partners to extend the existing provisions for unpaid time off for familiarisation visits or for meetings with adoptive authorities abroad.

The amendment also introduces an element of uncertainty with respect to the entitlements of employees engaged in foreign adoption as to whether subsection (1) applies to them. The amendment is open to the interpretation that the entitlement of paid time off in subsection (1) would be lost in the event that a placement did not subsequently occur, creating an anomaly between domestic and foreign adopters.