Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael)
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Question 429: To ask the Minister for Health and Children the position regarding the applications of couples here adopting from Ethiopia if Ireland fully signs up to the Hague Convention principles on adoption during the couples adoption process; if this will halt all adoptions from Ethiopia that will be in process at that time; if couples in the system will be allowed to continue with their adoption; the stage of the process they must have reached in order to be classed as in the system; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [33235/09]

Barry Andrews (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The Adoption Bill, 2009, which is designed to give force of law to the Hague Convention on the Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Inter-country Adoption, has passed through the Seanad and I am actively seeking time for its progression in the current Dáil session. I firmly believe that legislation and, specifically, the regime of the Hague Convention, provides an assurance for individual children, their families, and the State that appropriate procedures have been followed and that the adoption was affected in the best interests of the child. This applies in the case of adoptions from Ethiopia and other countries who have not, as yet, ratified the Hague Convention, and would seem unlikely to do so in the immediate future. Only adoptions effected before the commencement of the Act can be registered on the Register of Inter-Country Adoptions to be established under the Bill.