THE ADOPTION Board has brought forward the issuing of “declarations of eligibility and suitability to adopt” for scores of couples ahead of a new adoption regime due to take effect next week.
The board has held special meetings this week to sanction the declarations, which will enable the couples to adopt from countries that have not ratified the Hague Convention on inter-country adoptions.
The Hague Convention safeguards the fundamental rights of children in inter-country adoptions, in both their country of birth and the country of adoption. Further safeguards aim to prevent the abduction, sale and trafficking of children for adoption.
The 2010 Adoption Act, signed by the President in July, ratifies the Hague Convention, provides for an adoption authority and for other changes to the adoption process. It will come into force on Monday.
The new regime introduced by the Act will restrict Irish citizens from adopting children from countries which have not signed the Hague Convention or with which Ireland did not have a bilateral agreement.
In the short-term, at least, this will prevent couples from adopting children from Russia, the state currently providing the largest number of adopted children to Irish couples.
However, under a transition period allowed under the Act any couple issued with a “declaration of eligibility and suitability” by the Adoption Board will be allowed to proceed with an adoption in a non-Hague country.
In response to the concerns of couples, many of whom have been in the adoption assessment process for three years or more, the board agreed to fast-track the issuing of declarations in recent weeks.
“We are meeting late into the night to ensure that no couples are adversely affected by the transition from the old 1952 Adoption Act to the new 2010 Act,” said Geoffrey Shannon, chairman of the Adoption Board yesterday.
Under the procedure for undertaking an intercountry adoption all couples are assessed by social workers from the Health Service Executive (HSE) before the Adoption Board can issue a “declaration of eligibility and suitability to adopt”.
These declarations are required by the authorities in countries that Irish couples wish to adopt children from.
Huge delays have built up under the current system and it is hoped the new regime, which allows for independent bodies to conduct adoption assessments in place of the HSE, will speed up the process.
By ratifying the Hague Convention, the Government has potentially opened up several new countries for couples seeking to adopt such as Bulgaria, the Philippines and Brazil. But adopting couples fear that it may take some time before the new regime is up and running and adoptions can begin to take place.
Minister for Children Barry Andrews said the new Act was a hugely progressive step in putting in place a world-class system of domestic and inter-country adoption in Ireland. “The new Act provides a vital framework, which supports a single standard for adoption, which will benefit the children in whose interest the adoption is undertaken and prospective adopters,” he said.