Joanna Tuffy (Dublin Mid West, Labour)
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Question 605: To ask the Minister for Health and Children the way current applications to the Adoption Board for adoption of children from Ethiopia will be impacted upon by the passing of the Adoption Bill; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [32156/10]

Barry Andrews (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The Adoption Act, 2010 gives force of law to the Hague Convention on the Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Inter-country Adoption. The new legislation, which incorporates the provisions of the Hague Convention, is designed to provide a framework to ensure that appropriate procedures have been followed and that all adoptions are effected in the best interests of the child. Future intercountry adoption arrangements will be governed by the terms of the Adoption Act, 2010, once commenced.

The papers for the ratification of the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption were deposited with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands on 28th July 2010. In accordance with Article 46.1 of the Convention, the Convention enters into force for Ireland on 1 November 2010.

Ireland does not have a bilateral agreement with Ethiopia in respect of adoption. Consideration of this matter is ongoing. I have been in touch with the Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Irish Embassy in Ethiopia as part of an assessment of adoption practice and the child welfare and protection systems in place in Ethiopia.

The Adoption Act, 2010, contains a provision that will enable prospective adoptive parents to proceed with an adoption from a non-Hague or non-bilateral country, if prior to the establishment date, they have been issued with a Declaration of Eligibility and Suitability to adopt. The provision requires that the Adoption Authority (to be set up under the Act) would be satisfied that the particular adoption meets all the standards of the Hague Convention. In practice this will mean that persons with a Declaration of Eligibility and Suitability from the Adoption Board issued prior to 1 November 2010 can continue the adoption, provided it is a Hague standard adoption.