Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am referring to the adoption laws as they stand. The second tier provides that, in the particular circumstances, a single person not related to the child may apply to adopt. This is at the level of determining eligibility.

The question of the child's best interests, which many people discuss but which some overuse or occasionally misuse, arises in the context of an initial determination of eligibility. It is clear that the words "in the particular circumstances" mean something as matters stand, that being and to use the Minister's word, there is some hierarchy or at least an element of exceptionality around the categories envisaged in "in the particular circumstances".My amendment seeks to create an obligation to secure additional consent of relevant persons, for example, a birth mother, to the making of an adoption order where the applicants are not a married couple or the mother, the father or a relative of the child. The amendment would insert a new section 32(a) in the Adoption Act 2010 to give the person or persons, for example, the birth mother, placing a child for adoption a right to know before consenting to the making of an adoption order that the order was not intended to be made in favour either of a married couple or the mother, the father or a relative of the child; in other words, that it was not being made in favour of persons whose eligibility to adopt would not be qualified if the amendment was to be accepted by any additional condition, as it is in the case of other classes of applicant in the particular circumstances. The amendment would give the person or persons a right to know if the adoption order was to be made in favour of civil partners, cohabitants or a single person other than a single person who was a relative of the child, but it would not require that in such circumstances that the person be told whether it was in favour of civil partners, cohabitants or a single person. It would not facilitate the person or persons choosing between all types of eligible applicant. It would merely facilitate a choice between applicants who were a married couple or the mother, the father or a single relative of the child and applicants who were civil partners, cohabitants or a single unrelated person. This division reflects the different terms on which the eligibility to adopt of these two groups is worded.

Senator Fidelma Healy Eames referred to the concept of discrimination. Some of the confusion in this area flows from the idea that discrimination can mean unjust or unlawful discrimination or that it can mean the necessary making of distinctions. Having regard to all of the international discussion and, in particular, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which Senator Jillian van Turnout alluded in the context of a child's right to know, much is made of------