Couples may risk obtaining an Irish child unlawfully because of low penalties, a former member of the Adoption Board has said.
Ms Vivienne Darling also said attempts by the board to consult biological fathers had caused a "dramatic increase" in the number of women claiming to have become pregnant by strangers.
Ms Darling, a member of the Adoption Board for 15 years until 1998, is former head of the Department of Social Studies at Trinity College Dublin and is president-elect of PACT, formerly the Protestant Adoption Society.
When she was on the Adoption Board about six cases of illegal adoption were reported to the DPP, she told The Irish Times yesterday. In none of these cases was there a prosecution.
The adoptions were illegal because they were arranged by a third party other than a registered adoption society.
The law was tightened in 1998, but in an article in the Irish Journal of Family Law Ms Darling said the deterrents might not be enough to stop illegal adoptions.
"Given that none of the cases of unlawful placement reported to the DPP have so far resulted in prosecution and that any fine would be no more than £1,500, some couples might be prepared to risk prosecution in order to obtain a child by unlawful means," she wrote. "It would be less expensive than embarking on foreign adoption."
A foreign adoption can cost more than £10,000. If the illegality later came to light, it is unlikely that the child would be removed as it would no longer be in its best interests. A decision by the Adoption Board to consult biological fathers about the proposed adoption of their children presented "enormous difficulties", according to Ms Darling.
Many birth mothers found the prospect threatening, she said. There was "a dramatic increase in the number of births claimed to have been the result of rape, one-night stands and alcohol excess where the mother stated they did not know the father's name or whereabouts".
On foreign adoption, she said a bilateral agreement with Romania in 1994 had proved meaningless because couples ignored the Adoption Board and travelled to Romania in search of children.
Ms Darling said exploitation would be avoided if more Irish agencies specialised in overseas adoption.
She called for the establishment of a review body on adoption, and for a non-government body to make recommendations and develop education and training programmes.
Email: pomorain@irish-times.ie