Foreign adoptions must be carried out in the interests of children rather than those of adoptive parents, the Law Reform Commission has said.
A commission report published today urges the Government to ratify the Hague Convention on intercountry adoption. Ratification would mean Ireland would have to take new measures to regulate the way in which foreign adoptions are handled.
The Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption, 1993, has been signed by Ireland but has not yet become law. The convention regulates adoptions which take place across national borders, and is intended to ensure that intercountry adoptions are administered according to high standards and accepted procedures.
The Minister of State for Children, Mr Frank Fahey, has promised that Ireland will ratify the convention when the preparatory work on this and other adoption issues has been completed. The commission says the principle underpinning its recommendations is that "the aim of intercountry adoption is to find the right adoptive parents for the child, rather than the right child for adoptive parents."
The Adoption Board should become the central authority for Ireland and should obtain proof that the birth parents have consented to the adoption of the child. Other key recommendations are:
A "substantial number" of agencies should be accredited to administer foreign adoptions. Health boards are already chronically overburdened with foreign adoption applications, it says, and it acknowledges there are lengthy waiting lists for adoption assessments.
But other agencies would have to meet certain criteria and would have to operate on a not-for-profit basis.
A post-adoption service should be set up by health boards for both foreign and domestic adoptions. This service would provide counselling and other forms of support.
If the authorities in the country of origin are satisfied the birth parents have consented to the adoption, this should be acceptable to Ireland. However, if serious doubts arise, the Central Authority (the Adoption Board) can refuse to allow adoptions from that country to go ahead.
Ireland should not insist that birth parents be given a period in which to withdraw their consent to an adoption.
"It is likely that many state of origin authorities would resist the imposition of such strictures upon them, and would refuse to deal with the Irish authorities on these terms," it says. "This would diminish the utility of the convention from an Irish perspective."
In its report, the commission deals at some length with the question of parental consent and whether parents are given money in return for putting their children up for adoption.
Even where proof of written consent to the adoption is given to the Irish authorities, it says, "it is difficult to establish, especially at a far distance, what pressures have resulted in the giving up of a child for adoption."
It cites one submission made to it which states that "given the levels of poverty in some of the sending countries, the removal of the financial burden of supporting a child may in itself constitute `payment', and therefore standards may not be as enforceable as they appear."
Nevertheless, the commission believes the procedures of the country of origin should be accepted by the Irish authorities but that in cases of serious doubt, adoptions from that country could be halted.