Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

It is regrettable that the Minister is unable to take these amendments on board. Post-adoption contact plans are a reality. In addition, anything that is dealt with in a culture of secrecy, non-acknowledgement and non-transparency with regard to children in Ireland is a bad idea. All the experts and groups across the board, including Barnardos, the foster carers of Ireland, who are the likely prospective parents under this legislation, and the care leavers of Ireland, consistently talk about the importance of contact plans. I must be clear. There is nothing in these proposals that places any obligation on a new parental or family unit.

However, when we are discussing children and the family unit it is important to remind the Minister and the House that we have moved past that in Ireland, because we also have children's rights legislation. A child has rights in their own capacity and among those rights are not just the right to security and well-being but also the right to relationship. Are we to say, because we do not wish to acknowledge it, that a child who is adopted at seven years of age, for example, no longer has a relationship of any kind with a former parental grandparent or an uncle, perhaps, who may have health issues and might not be in a position to act as an adoptive parent but who has an important role in the child's life? By not acknowledging the fact that contact is possibly an important issue, even if not for every child, we do not acknowledge fully the child's right to relationship and we take advantage of the fact that very few children will be likely to take cases in this regard. However, in the future we will face cases of children who, when they become adults, talk about the denial of their right to relationship and the fact that they were not allowed to have a full relationship.

The Minister repeatedly argues that we do not legislate for contact plans. We are not seeking to legislate for them. I would be happy if the Minister did so, but I realise that is not the case. We are talking about acknowledgement that contact plans happen and that it is better to have best practice in that regard. For example, prospective parents discussing with the Adoption Authority whether they wish to adopt and families who are foster carers and who, under this legislation, may now become parents should be able to have a full discussion around what might come into place and what a good contact plan would look like. It is now happening informally and under the radar, which is dangerous and inappropriate. This simply acknowledges the needs both of former families and also, most importantly, of children and the new parents.

When we discuss current practice we are talking about five or six children per year. With this legislation we could be talking about 100 or 200 children per year. In the lifetime of this legislation, and the Minister knows this, there will be a transformative effect. We will go from cases in single figures to cases in three figures in terms of the number of children being adopted, so an ad hocsystem will not be adequate. The State must take responsibility. I urge the Minister to table amendments in the Dáil in this regard if she cannot support mine.

Finally, the State does not and cannot constitutionally wash its hands of its responsibility to children simply because they have a new family unit. Post-adoption supports have been sought at every level. They are informally acknowledged for children who have gone through the Hague Convention, because we know informal funding is rightly provided for children who have come through that process to be counselled. This proposal is designed to give the Minister and her Department space. Yes, referring to relevant post-adoption supports is loose, but that is because I recognise there are no formal post-adoption supports. However, I am trying to give the Minister the space down the line to introduce those post-adoption supports, allow them to be recognised and to share information about them. This is giving the Minister the space to implement good practice, to which I believe the Minister is committed. I deeply regret she is not seizing that opportunity now. I urge her to re-visit the issue to ensure that she does not leave a flawed legacy and that we do not have hundreds of children moving through a new system which is leaving key building blocks off the table.