Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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Question 257: To ask the Minister for Health and Children if her attention has been drawn to the fact that the Adoption Board has, in determining a number of applications, rejected the opinion of Health Service Executive social workers that a couple or an individual are unsuitable for foreign adoption and made declarations of suitability, that substantial difficulties in effecting a foreign adoption have been experienced by prospective adopters so declared suitable because of the refusal of the Adoption Board to furnish to such adopters separate and independent family assessment reports and the refusal of the HSE to amend reports whose conclusions have been rejected by the Adoption Board; and if she will take urgent action to resolve this difficulty. [23460/07]

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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Intercountry adoption is regulated by the Adoption Acts 1952-1998. The Acts which are most relevant to intercountry adoption are the Adoption Act 1991 and the Adoption Act, 1998. There are a number of statutory procedures regulating intercountry adoption. For example, for an intercountry adoption to be recognised in Ireland, all prospective adoptive parents habitually resident in Ireland, must be assessed by the HSE or a registered adoption society and obtain a Declaration of Eligibility and Suitability to adopt. Countries of origin, through the State or its agents, will seek an assurance that prospective adoptive parents have been appropriately assessed and counselled before placing a child with them.

Section 8 (1) of the Adoption Act, 1991 provides a health board shall carry out an assessment when requested and as soon as practicable for people intending to adopt from abroad. While the assessment procedures are based on a model in which prospective adoptive parents have a self-selection role, the State has the ultimate responsibility in deciding whether they have the capacity to parent an adopted child.

While the Adoption Board can overturn a negative recommendation from the HSE, it is obliged to pass on the assessment report as the provision in the 1991 Act states:

" [the assessment report] shall be made available by the Board to the person or persons who are the subject of the declaration and to any person in the place where the adoption concerned is proposed to be effected having an interest in the matter."

Where the Adoption Board overturns a negative recommendation from the HSE, the Board also sends a letter of explanation with the Declaration.