Barry Andrews (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

Yes, that will happen as soon as we get this Bill passed, subject to the normal convention rules whereby one must lodge the instruments of ratification with the Hague Convention. Three months after that, the convention becomes active in this country. This will happen in October or November.

The final question concerns the 20 sets of prospective parents involved. We have been considering the subject this week and I have been in discussion with various Departments. It is extremely frustrating. Senator Cannon made reference to my trip to Vietnam this time last year. I refer to the concession made by the Vietnamese to process applications in these 20 cases who had not secured a referral by then but whose files were with the Department of Intercountry Adoption in Hanoi. It was made on the understanding that we were proceeding with a bilateral agreement at the time. However, as Members are aware, discussions on the bilateral agreement collapsed because of the International Social Service, ISS, report to be presented the following August. We were then left in a highly complex situation where the State was on notice that there were serious shortcomings in Vietnam. As the State pulled out of the bilateral agreement, whatever would be constructed for the aforementioned 20 cases would be complex and require an input from various Departments, including my Department, the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Office of the Attorney General. The matter is under active consideration and a lot of time has been devoted to it in the course of this week. That is all I will say about the matter at this point. It is not in abeyance.