Fidelma Healy Eames (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister of State. I am glad to see the Adoption Bill, which has a significant resonance in my life. I have adopted two children, one from Ireland and one from abroad. I am very familiar with the Hague Convention, although its adoption here is some 16 years late. Social workers brought that matter to our attention some time ago. It is interesting to examine how adoption has changed, even since the mid-1990s. Some 77% of all adoptions of Irish children are family adoptions. We have one of the highest rates of inter-country adoptions in the world, with just under 5,000 such cases since 1991. The area of foreign adoption is the most relevant outside of family adoptions in Ireland. I wish to address some of the issues from the point of view of families wishing to adopt, based on personal experience. One of the biggest issues is requests for assessment. The social worker has a critical role. No matter how tough social workers are, it is right and proper that the child is central to the process. It is important, however, that the social worker does not act as God and does not prevent a couple that has difficulty dealing with the assessment from being parents, for that is the right they seek. It is terrible for couples to have to wait three years to be assessed and a total of four or five years before they can be approved to adopt. This needs to be examined. I support the establishment of an independent assessment agency that would work under the same terms and conditions as the Health Service Executive, HSE, which conducts 90% of the assessments.

We must ask questions about putting couples through the mill about so much work on fertility and childlessness, which is excessive at times. The adoption process is fraught with serious emotional and social considerations.

There is often a time delay between a baby being allocated to a family and the couple being allowed to see the baby. Social worker empathy is critical in this situation in order not to destabilise the family. Friends of mine almost lost their opportunity to adopt because they became so anxious and the social worker decided they were perhaps not capable and fit and strong enough to adopt.

The importance of meeting birth parents cannot be underestimated. It is a wonderful thing because the couple gets information about health, etc. A conversation of one hour can provide enough information for life. It also demystifies the birth parents who are sometimes put on a pedestal as being magical and mystical creatures when in fact they are just normal people with as many flaws as ourselves. When such a meeting can be encouraged and facilitated it is brilliant. The possibility of meeting the birth parents of a foreign child is poor.

Tracing birth parents is also critical as the child gets older. I strongly encourage access to the original birth certificate once the child is 18 but absolutely not sooner than that. It is difficult to be a teenager and to come to terms with being adopted. At every stage of his or her life a child will ask a different question about being adopted.

What is the position when the father does not wish to be named? I understand the rights of fathers who wish to be named but there are those who do not wish to be named yet may become known to the adoptive parents. It is difficult for them to hide that information forever from a child.

Post-adoption services are crucial. It is important there continues to be support available for tracing and for services such as speech and language therapy. When one adopts a child from abroad there may be a language delay. Language therapy is a serious issue for native Irish children but may be an even bigger one for foreign adopted children. Psychological support is important because the trauma of separation is a big issue, especially as the child grows older. I support what other speakers have said about foster parents and strengthening their rights to adopt and doing it sooner. They are often carers of a little child for three to four years before even being considered and they may be the best parents for the child.

It is time to ratify the Hague Convention and it is good to have a single standard for adoptive parents and children regardless of location. A problem arises, however, if the state of origin does not meet the terms of the Hague Convention. Millions of children languish in institutions around the globe and despite the willingness of Irish families and applicants to provide loving and secure homes, we are prevented from helping more children through inefficiency and bureaucracy in these countries. Irish adoptive parents are extremely well prepared and capable of helping these children as research into outcomes for these children shows.

The Minister of State can play a significant role internationally by advancing bilateral agreements with some of these countries as a human right. Two thirds of the babies adopted in Ireland last year came from Russia, Ethiopia and Vietnam. Those countries are now in doubt because they have not done the necessary work on bilateral agreements. Time is critical for the renegotiation of the agreement with Vietnam if we are to avoid a collapse of adoptions from Vietnam. No one wants to see up to 20 children a month being deprived of families in this country. That will happen if the agreement with Vietnam is not renegotiated. These children may never be adopted owing to our authorities' lack of commitment. I encourage the Minister of State to act on this and on the agreement with Russia. What will happen to couples who are in the middle of the process while this Bill is going through the Houses? How can we enable these countries to move forward with their commitments?