Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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Question 148: To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the position regarding the proposal to provide for inter-country adoptions between Ireland and Kazakhstan; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [28735/12]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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With effect from 1 November 2010, inter-country adoptions can be effected with other countries which have ratified the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption (the Hague Adoption Convention) or with countries with which Ireland has a bilateral agreement. Kazakhstan has ratified the Convention.

Over the past 18 months the Adoption Authority of Ireland (AAI) has written to its counterpart Central Authority in Kazakhstan on three separate occasions to begin the process of developing an administrative agreement for intercountry adoption. The Authority advises me that to date there has been no reply from the Kazakhstani authorities to any of the contacts made by the AAI. The Authority continues to indicate that it is open to discussing the issue of intercountry adoptions with its Kazakhstani counterparts at any time, and the most recent correspondence from the AAI was in March of this year. I understand that an official of the Irish Embassy in Moscow recently presented a copy of the previous correspondence to, and raised the issue of intercountry adoption with, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Kazakhstan. I understand the Kazakhstani authorities hosted a meeting on intercountry adoption on the 11th of May. I would like to point out that at no stage were the AAI, the Department of Children and Youth Affairs or the Embassy contacted by the Kazakhstani authorities regarding the meeting. While it is, of course, a matter for each country to decide with whom it co-operates, as soon as the issue came to the attention of my Department, official contact was made with the Embassy in Moscow in this regard. The Embassy officials in Moscow are endeavouring to secure feedback from this meeting to assess its relevance for progress towards an administrative agreement on intercountry adoption between Ireland and Kazakhstan.

The Embassy has been asked to request information from the relevant authorities on the position for Irish couples hoping to adopt from Kazakhstan as soon as possible. In the interim the AAI is currently completing a review of Kazakhstan's adoption legislation.