Fidelma Healy Eames (Fine Gael)

I support Senator Fitzgerald. It is great that the Minister of State acknowledged the executive could also be interchanged with an accredited body for the reasons Senator Fitzgerald outlined. The waiting time for assessment is unacceptable because by the time many couples find out they have a difficulty conceiving a child and have pursued fertility treatment and other investigations and can afford to buy their own home, they are in their late 30s. They join assessment waiting lists and by the time they are approved for adoption of a child, they could be in their mid-40s. It is unacceptable as couples lose many good child rearing years, which can have an impact on the quality of parenting and so on.

It introduces a great deal of sadness into a couple's lives that an agency is holding up their lives. Many couples have described the HSE as acting like God. There is no question that the assessment needs to be rigorous because the process is ultimately about the child and not the couple. We have a good record in this jurisdiction in parenting and providing good adoptive parents but it is not acceptable that the HSE can hold up people's lives to this extent. I welcome the establishment of an accredited body which has clear terms of reference and which uses strict criteria and high standards. The Minister of State should examine how it is funded and perhaps a significant amount of work could be taken from the HSE because it is clear on many fronts that the executive is not coping with children's issues.

Child protection is in crisis. There have been many child abuse cases. We have had the Monageer and Cloyne reports and the Ombudsman for Children recently suspended an investigation because the HSE would not co-operate. How can the executive respond to all these investigations? It is not managing, yet prospective adoptive couples face waits of between three and five years for assessment. There is great merit in putting an accredited body in place.