Embattled adoption agency defends its role
By: Susan Mitchell
It has not been a good year for Sharon O’Driscoll. As chief executive of Helping Hands, which facilitates overseas adoptions from Vietnam, she has been at the centre of a media storm surrounding the issue of how adoptions from the country are arranged.
Last May, it emerged that a bilateral agreement covering adoptions between Vietnam and Ireland had not been renewed.
Without it, no legal adoptions can be processed in Vietnam. Minister for Children Barry Andrews refused to explain why the agreement had not been renewed, and was accused of leaving hundreds of prospective adoptive parents in limbo.
Then an unfavourable draft United Nations report which painted an unflattering picture of Helping Hands was leaked to the press. It emerged that the Adoption Board was also seeking clarification of the fees charged by Helping Hands for its services.
O’Driscoll has, in the main, shunned the media, but over the past week, appears to have reversed that strategy. She is now keen to shed some light on a number of the concerns raised, in particular media coverage of the draft UN report.
This described the information Helping Hands provides to the public as ‘‘at least somewhat misleading and consequently disturbing in its implications’’.
Parents who have adopted from Vietnam in recent years paid $11,100 (€7,400) to Helping Hands. Of that, $9,000 was paid as ‘‘humanitarian aid’’ to regional authorities in Vietnam.
O’Driscoll acknowledged that Helping Hands had not always lodged that humanitarian aid to identifiable bank accounts.
About €3 million has been paid out in total and sizeable sums - she was unable to disclose the precise amounts - were paid over in cash. Helping Hands did not receive audited accounts from the Vietnamese.
‘‘It’s just the way things are done," O’Driscoll said.
She added that Helping Hands had repeatedly expressed concerns about the lack of accountability for money paid out in Vietnam in humanitarian aid, and had raised the issue a number of times with the Adopt ion Board. ‘‘We made recommendations about this to the Adoption Board as far back as 2006.
We said greater accountability was needed and we continued to make that point," she said.
That said, she does not believe the money is going astray. ‘‘I go out there every eight weeks and I see the progress that is being made on the ground with the money," she said.
O’Driscoll said criticism of Helping Hands in the draft report from the UN International Social Service (ISS) solely pertained to a recent $1,000 increase in the fee levied for humanitarian aid. The report’s authors claimed Helping Hands had not clarified this increase.
‘‘The first we knew about this was when we read it in the papers," said O’Driscoll. ‘‘We had never even been contacted by them about it. We wrote to them and they sent us a set of questions, which we subsequently responded to."
A recent letter from the UN body confirmed there had been a mix-up over the initial questionnaire, which was sent to the wrong address, and that the recent response ‘‘clarified very well the main questions’’ it had. It said this would be reflected in its final report.
O’Driscoll said she had also responded to similar queries from the Adoption Board.
She feels aggrieved at the leaking of elements of the ISS report and details of correspondence between Helping Hands and the Adoption Board.
‘‘The draft ISS report was leaked inappropriately and was done to cause trouble, in my view. Stuff from the Adoption Board was mysteriously leaked. I’m assuming my most recent response will be leaked too," she said. ‘‘But it is very hurtful to the applicants and the children involved, many of whom are of school age. I have raised it with the department and the Adoption Board. What is the agenda?"
The amount paid in humanitarian aid by Irish parents is agreed in informal round table discussions with Vietnamese authorities, O’Driscoll said, adding that she believed the amount should be decided at government level.
The bilateral agreement that was agreed between the Irish and Vietnamese governments, and which expired in May, contained a clause stipulating that humanitarian aid be paid to the donor country. It failed to specify the amount, whereas bilateral agreements that the Vietnamese have with other countries specify the precise amount.
O’Driscoll said the amount charged to parents in Ireland was similar to the amount paid by parents in other countries who were also adopting from Vietnam. ‘‘There is a misconception about this," she said.
Other sources rejected that statement. In France, for example, parents pay half that amount for the processing of the application and the humanitarian fee combined.
O’Driscoll said all money paid to Helping Hands by adoptive parents was placed in a holding account. ‘‘We receive none of that money," she said.
‘‘The $9,000 is paid directly to regional authorities and the remaining $2,100 is used to cover medical checks, the processing of all documentation, translation and notarisation, and transport costs. We make the payments on the parents’ behalf. We don’t charge for the service. We are funded entirely b y the HSE."
Helping Hands has received funding of €1.6 million from the Health Service Executive since 2006.
O’Driscoll said there was ‘‘simply no chance’’ that an Irish parent would end up with a child who was put up for adoption in the circumstances that were outlined in a report in the Daily Mail last weekend.
The report read: ‘‘In a dingy shack, young women wait to give birth. Soon, for a few dollars, they will hand their newborn to desperate Irish couples."
O’Driscoll said Helping Hands existed to protect people from such a scenario. Such an adoption would never be registered in Ireland in the first place, according to O’Driscoll, as the adoption had to be referred through the Vietnamese Central Authority.
Under the previous bilateral agreement, every adoption had to be conducted through a mediation agency licensed by both central authorities, O’Driscoll said.
‘‘They have a very stringent process, as do we. I have always found them very diligent. The paperwork is examined and re-examined.
‘‘We also got them to introduce a database to ensure there is a clear trail of all the documentation. It gives added protection," she said.
‘‘We have no worries or concerns over the eligibility of any of the children we have facilitated adoptions for."
Barry Andrews has said he will consider the ISS report - which is expected to be published in mid-November - before deciding whether to renew the bilateral agreement with Vietnam.
The question beckons: if the minister is as concerned as he purports to be, why is his office trying to process 20 applications that had already been received by the Vietnamese before the bilateral agreement lapsed?
O’Driscoll was reluctant to be drawn on this. She evidently doesn’t want to offend the man who may hold the key to the survival of her organisation. ‘‘I don’t know," she said.
The Helping Hands saga has overshadowed other concerns that have been raised about the inter-country adoption process in Ireland.
They include the bureaucratic minefield people face when being assessed for adoption and the failure to ratify the Hague convention (aimed at improving the inter-country adoption process). Ireland committed to ratifying it in 1993 and we will be the last country in the European Union to do so.
O’Driscoll said Helping Hands had been inundated with calls from concerned adoptive parents and prospective adoptive parents in recent months.
‘‘It is desperate for them. Many are up to are eight years in the system," she said.
‘‘I have seen the draft ISS report and there is nothing in that report we did not know before. I think the big thing that is being forgotten is that the Vietnamese commissioned the ISS and the Unicef report.
There were a huge number of domestic adoptions in Vietnam last year. Nobody is reporting that. There were 12,000 domestic adoptions and 3,000 intercountry adoptions - which is unlike any other donor country.
They are improving their processes all the time and they want to improve their processes. That is being lost."