Adoption families should get counselling

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

Their recommendation is in light of research which found that in one Health Service Executive area alone, 13 adoptions had broken down with the children now in care or living with extended family.

The Law Reform Commission had been asked to examine the fallout of the Tristan Dowse case but it also looked at the wider implications of adoption legislation in this country.

In the Dowse case, the two-month-old Indonesian boy Tristan was adopted by a couple, one of whom was Irish. The adoption was registered in Ireland as a foreign adoption under the Adoption Act 1991 and Tristan was issued with an Irish passport.

Two years later, the Dowses decided the adoption wasn’t “working out” and left him in an orphanage in Jakarta.

The Attorney General took on the case. The courts decided, after Tristan was reunited with his birth mother, that the Dowses had failed their duties. The adoption registration was cancelled, the Dowses ordered to provide for the boy and his Irish citizenship was upheld.

Raymond Byrne, director of research at the commission, said it had been asked to examine the problems arising from the case of Tristan Dowes.

He said this proved to be a rare case, however, when the commission began looking at inter-country adoptions it discovered other issues it felt obliged to make recommendations on.

The commission made a number of general recommendations based on its research. It suggested the Government provide counselling for families with adopted children.

Raymond Byrne said this had become “critical” as overseas adoptions grew. Last year, almost 500 Irish parents adopted a child from abroad.

As well as the counselling recommendation, the report advised that a dedicated High Court judge be

appointed to deal with complex adoption cases and that the Adoption Board look to recognise accredited bodies abroad where they could trust the authenticity of information.

It said the Government should use the upcoming Adoption Bill to adopt the 15-year-old Hague convention as this would help bring consistency to how the Adoption Board dealt with international organisations.