Barry Andrews (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

I thank Senators for their contributions on this important area. It has occupied much of my time in preparing this legislation over the past six months. I have had many discussions with the Adoption Association and many parents who approached me in my constituency office and elsewhere on this matter. I have received many e-mails from parents concerned about the situation, particularly as it applies to Vietnam.

I have enormous sympathy with those parents because they have come through a long and personal process. For many, it began with approaching the HSE to apply for adoption. While there is a necessary element to the process with due diligence required, much of it is regrettably prolonged unnecessarily.

I understand the huge frustration expressed by adoptive parents on achieving a bilateral agreement with Vietnam and other countries. The Hague Convention, however, has at its core the protection of children rather than the protection of parents' rights. While this is putting it bluntly, it is understood and no one will argue with that. It is important to place that as a central principle in this debate.

Some questions were raised about the safety of adoptions from Vietnam with the United States and Sweden preventing any further adoptions from the country. We began the process of rolling over the existing agreement or securing a second agreement by 1 May. The Government made a decision to negotiate a new agreement on my recommendation in December, following a visit by members of my office and the Adoption Board to Vietnam. I hope this week to send a draft agreement to the Vietnamese Government through the Department of Foreign Affairs. I have communicated this to the Adoption Association and other interested bodies. It will be up to the Vietnamese Government to agree to the draft. Hopefully, we will be in a position to settle this issue before the deadline.

We did encourage prospective adopting parents to identify with Vietnam, as it is a country in which we have confidence. While I sympathise with their concerns about the agreement, I ask them to keep their nerve on this. The Government is determined to reach an agreement with the Vietnamese authorities. Its policy is based on solid and sound investigations of the Vietnamese adoption process. We are fortunate enough to have an agency on the ground to assure us about this, unlike other countries which have too many, and have a secure system in place.

Senators have been calling for a parallel system for countries that have not signed up to the Hague Convention or those with which we do not have a bilateral agreement. We have gone to enormous trouble to get a bilateral agreement with Vietnam and we will do so again with Russia and Ethiopia. If we were to create an alternative mechanism that would operate outside the principles of the Hague Convention in respect of adoptions from countries which, for whatever reason, cannot sign up to that convention or with which we do not have bilateral agreements, it would dilute what we are attempting in this Bill. We cannot anticipate developments in this regard.

We are seeking to enter a new era with regard to adoption in this country. The Bill is the product of a lengthy consultation period which commenced in 1993, when we signed the Hague Convention. The initial intention was to transpose the latter into Irish law but it was then decided to consolidate the principal Act and the various amendments relating thereto into the legislation before the House.

Having learned from the mistakes made in other countries, engaged in an extremely lengthy period and received the views of all interested parties, we want to create a new structure under which there will be a solid grounding for adoption and in respect of which concrete minimum standards that are complaint with the Hague Convention will apply. The Government has given this matter all due consideration and any dilution of the central principles I have outlined would weaken the Bill.

We are moving forward and trying to put in place further bilateral agreements. Adoptions of Russian children will be able to proceed until the Bill has been enacted. We must wait until the situation relating to Vietnam is resolved before trying to exert further pressure in order to achieve agreements with Russia and Ethiopia, which have been popular among prospective adoptive parents.