The language and scope of the Mother and Baby Home Commission is questionable, says Conall Ó Fátharta

An amnesty from prosecution for those involved in facilitating illegal adoptions has been suggested by the Mother and Baby Homes Commission.

A welcome and positive development in the best interest of children: that’s the Children’s Rights Alliance response to Ireland’s agreement on inter-country adoption with the Philippines.

Adoption campaigners are concerned that tens of thousands of unmarried women and girls whose children were forcibly or illegally adopted will be excluded from the upcoming mother and baby homes inquiry.

Amidst the tsunami of speculation about the whereabouts of the bodies of almost 800 children from the former Tuam mother-and-baby home, some sceptics have settled on the belief that 796 bodies could not be contained in this small plot of land.

President calls on the State and institutions to provide information

In response to the excellent article by Conall O’Fatharta (Irish Examiner, February 4), I am outraged by Minister Fitzgerald’s response that all adoptions were carried out and sanctioned by the Adoption Board (AAI), after 1952.

Adopted people have hit out at claims by Children’s Minister Frances Fitzgerald that every adoption carried out by the State was done in line with the law.

The Adoption Authority was alerted to the activities of a Monaghan GP —recently exposed as arranging illegal adoptions in the 1970s — as far back as 2005.

The HSE has continued to fund an adoption agency despite it not being accredited to carry out any adoption services since Nov 2010.

The Adoption Authority has said it has “no plans” to inspect all the files held by accredited adoption agencies, despite evidence that some have arranged illegal adoptions.

THE ADOPTION Authority has lost its second chief executive in just over a year after Elizabeth Canavan resigned just five months in the job.

THE first ever audit of the Adoption Authority’s records has uncovered approximately 50 cases of illegal adoptions.

TRESSA REEVES, whose son was illegally adopted and registered as the natural child of the adoptive parents, says she has received no assistance from the Adoption Authority more than a year after her case was exposed.

IRISH Examiner journalist Conall Ó Fatharta has won one of the highest accolades on offer at the Justice Media Awards for his outstanding exposé on Ireland’s illegal adoption scandal.

SOME Adoption Board members attended just a fraction of board meetings between 2005 and 2009, a period in which the organisation was embroiled in high-profile scandals.

A HIQA-STYLE inspection unit to ensure bodies approved to provide adoption services meet strict new regulations is being considered by the Adoption Authority.

THE Government’s confirmation that work has started on tracing and information legislation for adopted people and natural parents has a received a cautious welcome from adoption support groups.

SINCE May of last year, countless headlines have reported the clamour amongst lobby groups for adoptive parents, politicians and scores of couples left in limbo to reopen Vietnam as a country from which Irish couples can adopt.

THE Adoption Board has said it has no intention of inspecting all adoption files held by the HSE and private adoption agencies, despite the HSE admitting some files contain evidence of illegal birth registrations.

ADOPTION assessments are to be moved from the HSE to independent bodies so social workers can focus more on child protection and family support work.

CAROL O’KEEFFE has known from a young age she was adopted.

THE Adoption Board has been at the centre of a number of scandals concerning how domestic and foreign adoptions have been carried out since adoption was made legal in 1952.

A TOP civil servant has been drafted in to take over the running of the Adoption Board following the sudden departure of the chief executive last month.

THE chief executive of the Adoption Board left the post at the beginning of July, it has been confirmed.

THE Adoption Board has confirmed it is to carry out an audit of its information and tracing service records to identify any cases involving illegal activity.

ADOPTION agency Helping Hands, currently under investigation by the Adoption Board in relation to fees it charges people to adopt from Vietnam, has issued a report clearing the agency of any impropriety.

A NEW adoption agency to facilitate inter-country adoptions for Irish people is scheduled to launch in September.

ANY adoption agency which engages in illegal practices should be de-registered and if necessary the case referred to An Garda Síochána, the chairman of the Adoption Board has said.

FINE GAEL has hit out at claims by Fianna Fáil that adoptive parents are partly to blame for the hold-up in Russian adoptions.

AS the campaign to improve the rights of adopted people gathers momentum, one of the founders of the Adoption Rights Alliance has written to the Minister for the Children reminding him how every day of her life is spent fighting for those whose rights are being routinely denied.

“OUR whole social history as a nation is in those files and some of it is not pretty but it’s my heritage and it’s the heritage of 42,000 other people.”

TRESSA REEVES stares at the framed piece of paper on the wall.

THE Adoption Bill ignores the information and tracing rights of more than 42,000 adopted people and their families, a new coalition of adoption and children’s rights groups has claimed.

THE Government has “slammed the door in the face” of young couples attempting to adopt by suspending services from Vietnam.

NO time scale has been set for the processing of 20 adoptions agreed between the Irish and Vietnamese authorities.

The Government is publishing new legislation to reform and streamline the adoption process.

THE Government was accused of “harbouring a culture of secrecy” after figures show the number of requests made under the Freedom of Information (FoI) Act have almost halved since fees were introduced five years ago.

Foreign children adopted by an Irish parent are entitled to become a citizen even if the family lives outside the state, it was recommended today.

THE Law Reform Commission has called for new laws to require the Government to provide counselling for families with adopted children.

International experts will today discuss growing number of foreign children being adopted from overseas.

ALMOST 7,000 people have joined a national register established to facilitate contact between adopted people and their natural parents.