A consultation process has already begun, writes Carol Coulter, Legal Affairs Correspondent
Ongoing contact between adopted children and their birth families and more rights for the natural fathers of adopted children are among the suggestions in a consultation paper on adoption just published by the Department of Health.
It also raises the question of less restrictions on the adoption of children of married parents, allowing for guardianship instead of adoption in certain circumstances, and allowing adoptees access to their birth records.
The suggestions are made in a paper written for the Department by Mr Geoffrey Shannon, lecturer in family law in the Law Society. It has just been published on the Department's website, and asks interested parties for responses, which together will provide the basis for a conference on the reform of the adoption laws in the autumn.
In a foreword the Minister of State for Children, Mr Brian Lenihan, said that he wished to modernise all aspects of adoption legislation.
Already his Department is working on two new legislative proposals, one providing for the ratification of the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption, and the other providing for structured access to information and contact for those affected by adoption, which will also become part of the overall consultation process.
The paper points out that there have been great changes in the practice of adoption in Ireland in the 51 years since the first Adoption Act was passed. It has been amended six times since.
This Act provided for the expunging of all parental rights and duties of birth parents, and the total severance of their link with the adopted child.
This met the perceived needs of the time, where adoption was the answer to extra-marital pregnancy, usually shrouded in secrecy and giving rise to great stigma. Occasionally children who were fully orphaned were also adopted.
Since this Act came into force, 42,000 adoption orders have been made in Ireland. However, the period has seen a dramatic fall in the number of Irish children being adopted, and a rise in intercountry adoptions. Of the 196 Irish children adopted in 2001, 180 were step-family adoptions, where a single mother marries and then adopts the child with her husband.
In the same year, there were 391 declarations to adopt abroad granted by the Adoption Board, an increase of almost 40 per cent on the previous year.
The international phenomenon of intercountry adoptions has been tackled by the Hague Convention on the issue, which has been signed by Ireland and is due to be incorporated into Irish law this year.
It provides that adoptions can only go ahead where the same safeguards as for Irish domestic adoptions have been applied, where the adopters have been properly assessed and approved, and where it is in the best interests of the child.
The other proposals already in train related to adoption information and contact.
This provides for both a voluntary contact register, and a contact veto register, where people can register their objections to any contact. It also provides for counselling for all parties and a State-funded tracing service.
The discussion document is also asking for people's views on whether there should be a common lower and upper age limit for prospective adoptive parents; whether there should be a specialist Adoption Court to deal with adoption matters, rather than the High Court; what time limit should apply between placing a child for adoption and final consent; and whether there should be provision for guardianship orders, instead of adoption orders, in some circumstances.
More controversial issues are likely to include whether, and how, the children of married parents can be adopted.
At the moment this is only possible if the High Court is satisfied that the child is effectively abandoned and likely to remain so until the age of 18. This reflects the strong protection for the married family in the Constitution, and change may require an amendment.
Mr Shannon also suggests a form of open adoption, where contact with the birth family continues, though in a tightly structured way.
He also asks whether there should be provision for the natural father to continue to have access to the child following its adoption.
The document is available on the Department of Health's website, www.doh.ie, and submissions are sought before July 18th.