James Reilly (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister and wish her a happy new year. I also welcome the Bill which has been in the making for quite some time. I commend the Minister and her Department for bringing it to the House. I believe it will receive overwhelming support, notwithstanding the concerns of a few.

The situation was that there was no provision for re-adoption. A child had only one chance and if he or she was unlucky and something happened to his or her adopted parents or the adoption did not work out for other reasons, through no fault of the child, that was it. As a society, we had decided that children would have one chance and one chance only. I do not think anybody would agree with this from a moral point of view. Equally, the idea that two people in a loving and lasting relationship, one of whom was the parent of a child, would have to give up that child in order to have him or her adopted by both parents was ludicrous and such issues needed to be addressed urgently.

I welcome the Bill and will not speak at length on it. It is legislation I am very pleased to see in the House. I know that that there are other Bills on adoption coming through the Department to which I also look forward.