Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick East, Labour)
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Question 200: To ask the Minister for Health and Children the reason it takes up to five years in some parts of the country to assess couples for adoption from overseas; if she expects that this timeframe will be shortened when the Adoption Bill 2009 is implemented; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [22405/09]

Barry Andrews (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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Requests for assessment for inter-country adoption are continuously increasing. The 'Study on Inter-country Adoption Outcomes in Ireland', undertaken by the Children's Research Centre, Trinity College, between December, 2004, and April, 2007, revealed that Ireland has one of the highest rates for inter-country adoption in Europe. It is against this background that the Office of the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs is continuing to work to create the appropriate legislative, policy and administrative frameworks that will ensure a well regulated regime of adoption. Its aim is to support the children for whom adoption services are devised and provided and to protect prospective parents.

A family that wishes to adopt should be recognised beforehand as being able to promote, safeguard and support the development and well-being of a child in need of adoption in a lasting manner. However, it is acknowledged that persons applying for inter-country adoption are experiencing delays as regards waiting times for assessment, and that there are also concerns regarding the standardisation of the service across the country.

It should be noted that the increasing numbers of children adopted from abroad create additional pressures on inter-country adoption teams within the Health Service Executive. This is because these same teams provide post-adoption reports to the sending countries, at the request of those countries, and with the agreement of the adoptive parents. This is an important component in the willingness of countries to consider Irish applicants for adoption. It must also be acknowledged that the Health Service Executive's Child Welfare and Protection Services must continue to be the priority in managing the overall resources available to the Executive in respect of all of these services.

It is also important to note that, following the assessment process, if successful, applicants must then wait before receiving a referral for a child from the sending country. The waiting times for referral are outside the jurisdiction of both the Health Service Executive and the Adoption Board and are dependant on the regulations that each individual country has with regard to inter-country adoption.

At a practical level, the development of standards for the assessment of applicants for inter-country adoption has been advanced through the conjoint working of the Adoption Board, the Office of the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs and the Health Service Executive. This work was based on a report commissioned by the Department of Health and Children and submitted to Government in June, 1999, entitled "Towards a Standardised Framework for Inter-country Adoption Assessment Procedures". The standardised framework which emerged from that process in 2000 was founded on evidence-based practice and developed with the assistance of international agencies in the field. The implementation of this framework is continually under review by all parties as inter-country adoption practice and experience continues to evolve and with particular regard to the new statutory framework likely to emerge from the recently published Adoption Bill, 2009.

The Bill, which has now passed all stages in the Seanad, provides for a new regime for the accreditation of a range of agencies providing adoption services. This modernised regime more fully recognises the phenomenon of inter-country adoption and makes provision for the accreditation of agencies to provide both assessment services or mediation services. The Bill also proposes changes to the regulation of the activities, management and financial arrangements of such agencies. If enacted, there will be opportunity for the development of new agencies to assist in the reduction of waiting times in those areas where the waiting times are longest.