Government set to accelerate its foreign adoption process

Government set to accelerate its foreign adoption process
Sunday, May 10, 2009  By Susan Mitchell
The government plans to speed up the process for adopting foreign children by outsourcing responsibility for the practice from the Health Service Executive (HSE).

Radical new proposals are being considered by Barry Andrews, the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, which would result in the establishment of an intermediary agency that would be responsible for processing adoption applications and issuing post placement reports. Andrews said the move would alleviate pressure on social workers, who were under enormous pressure due to heavy workloads..

The minister said the current adoption process ‘‘takes far too long, with many people waiting four to five years before they receive a referral for adoption’’.

Andrews said applications should be assessed within two years and vowed to speed up the process during his term in office. He said that he was aware that many parents felt the system was riddled with ‘‘bureaucratic inertia’’, and that the current assessment process was ‘‘overly intrusive’’.

Andrews said that he had received a proposal from the International Adoption Association (IAA), an Irish based non-profit organisation, which suggested that a new agency should be set up to facilitate inter-country adoption and post-placement reports.

The IAA, an Irish-based non profit organisation, has also discussed the possibility of setting up an independent agency that would process applications from parents.

The HSE carries out post placement reports, but Russian authorities have not received a number of reports. This has resulted in Ireland being ‘blacklisted’ by Russian authorities.

Andrews said that the HSE had no statutory responsibility to carry out the reports, but had told Russian authorities that it would do so. About 34 reports are outstanding.

In the Da¤ il last week, Andrews was criticised by opposition parties, who said failures by Irish authorities had resulted in Russia and Vietnam being closed off to Irish parents. They accused Andrews of leaving it too late to negotiate a new agreement with Vietnam, as the last agreement ended on May 1.

The minister rejected the claim, but has steadfastly refused to disclose the specific reasons for the delay.