Barry Andrews (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

When an adoption from Russia is effected, the applicants sign an affidavit undertaking to provide post-placement reports for a period after the adoption, usually four years approximately. However, what happens is - this is a normal human experience - that, although the reports come in promptly for the first six months, as time passes and normality resumes in a family's life, people forget to furnish them. Efforts are made by the Adoption Board and the HSE, although they are not required to do so in law, to elicit such reports because, naturally, the Russians get annoyed when such reports are not forthcoming. Senator Corrigan is correct that it is the parents who give that undertaking and sign an affidavit. The State cannot oblige them to do so because of the nature of adoption in this country. It severs all ties with the natural parents and the family with a newly adopted child is in the same category as a married family and can exclude inquiries made by a third party about the health or well-being of children, unless a child protection issue arises and this situation cannot be so described. Consequently, it requires the grace and favour of the parents to keep the process going.