IRISH COUPLES will be unable to adopt from Ethiopia if the Government fails to act within the next few months on bilateral agreements, the Dáil has heard.

Independent TD for Dublin North Central Finian McGrath said couples in Ireland who had adopted from Ethiopia “will not be in a position to adopt a second child” if action was not taken.

People seeking to adopt from countries such as Ethiopia and Russia have asked the Government to seek bilateral agreements because they are not currently members of the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption, although Irish couples have previously adopted there. They are unable to adopt siblings from these countries in the absence of such an agreement.

Eamon Gilmore said he and Minister of State Jan O’Sullivan “will work to resolve these difficulties” and said he had been working with Minister for Children Frances Fitzgerald on the issue for some time.

He said complex issues “arise in some of these cases. The legislation and regulations that apply here in relation to adoption and child custody can sometimes be quite different from those in the countries from which these children are being adopted.”

Mr McGrath said there were 300 Irish families seeking adoption from Ethiopia and he urged Mr Gilmore “not to close the door to adoption from Ethiopia”.

There were five million orphans in Ethiopia, which had a population of 80 million people, he said. “Just 3,031 Ethiopian orphans are involved in intercountry adoptions.” Mr McGrath asked the Tánaiste to “further develop Ireland’s relationship with Ethiopia”. A cross-party delegation including five Oireachtas members is currently in Ethiopia, one of Ireland’s biggest aid recipients.

The Independent TD said people in countries such as the US and Sweden were continuing to adopt from Ethiopia, whose governments were “getting on with the job of resolving these complex child safety issues”. Mr Gilmore said he, his Government colleagues and their departments “will work to resolve these difficulties”.