Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

546. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs if she will provide an update on any progress made since April 2013 regarding adoptions on the two years plus one year extension of the validity of the declaration; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [16269/14]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The Adoption Act, 2010, which entered into force on 1 November 2010, gives force of law to the Hague Convention on the Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption.

In April 2013 I streamlined the assessment process for those seeking to transfer from declarations of eligibility and suitability to adopt which are due to expire before the 31st of October 2013 that is those declarations which had been issued prior to I November 2010. This allowed prospective adoptive parents to apply for, and receive if eligible, a declaration of eligibility and suitability to adopt under Section 40 of the Adoption Act 2010 with the minimum of bureaucracy.