The Health Service Executive (HSE) has placed a public notice asking the mother of a baby abandoned in Cork in October 2003 to come forward by January 26th, or the baby will be adopted by her foster parents.
This follows a court order made in the High Court last November that the baby could be adopted if one further public notice failed to get a response.
The proceedings have been taken by the HSE under the 1988 Adoption Act which provides for the adoption of children deemed to be abandoned by their parents. The Act provides for adoption in exceptional cases "where the parents for physical or moral reasons have failed in their duty towards their children".
The Act lays down the procedures to be followed by the health board (now the HSE) in asking the court to make an adoption order where it considers a child to have been abandoned.
In this case the baby was found in a holdall bag left on the boot of a car parked outside the South Infirmary Hospital in Cork on October 13th, 2003.
A number of appeals to the mother to come forward were unsuccessful.