Ireland too strict about foreign-child adoptions

I refer to your article on adoption, Minister’s adoption remarks ‘worrying’ (Sept 5). I am the parent of a foreign-adopted child. Since Ireland introduced new adoption laws in 2010, foreign adoptions have more or less ceased.

The majority of such adoptions since have involved people with pre-Hague declarations who were allowed to continue to adopt from non-Hague countries (such as Ethiopia or Russia). Under the Adoption Act, we still had to prove that our adoptions were Hague-compliant.

Parents have no problem with ensuring their adoption is Hague-compliant. Everyone agrees with the principles of the agreement, but Ireland has turned this into a bureaucratic and legal nightmare. Ireland is unique in its stance that the child must be adopted from a Hague signatory country, or a country with which we have a bilateral agreement.

Three years after the act, a very limited number of adoptions are being sanctioned. Some 600 families in Ireland have been rigorously assessed to adopt. While nobody has the right to a child, and, ideally, there would be no need for international adoption, there are 600 children in institutions around the world who are being denied the chance of a family and a home. Having gone through the process of adoption, it could never be described as easy, but when I look at my child I know it was worth it.

Denise Kirwan

Kells

Co Kilkenny