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А. LEGAL SPECIFICS AND REQUIREMENTS

On 19th June 1996 Ireland signed the Hague Convention for Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption. The Adoption Act to enable ratification of the Convention was passed by the Irish parliament (the Oireachtas) on July 2nd 2010, and signed by the President of Ireland on July 14th 2010. This enabled the Act to come into force, ratifying Hague, on November 1st, 2010.

Under the Adoption Act, the Adoption Authority of Ireland (AAI) became the Central Authority according to the Convention, and is composed of a Chairperson, and six other board members. The AAI is an independent judicial body, and is appointed by the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, and is the competent body for issuing Declarations of Eligibility and Suitability, and of Article 17 approvals under Hague. The AAI also has an executive staff, and is responsible for all adoption issues, both domestic and intercountry.

Adoption in Ireland was first legislated for in the 1952 Adoption Act, establishing the Adoption Board or Ireland - the forerunner to the AAI. Between 1953 and 2008 over 43,000 domestic adoptions were registered, peaking in peaking in1967 with 1,493 adoptions.

Intercountry adoption by Irish residents became possible following the passing of the 1991 Adoption Act. Since then, over 5,000 foreign adoptions have been registered by the AAI, from over 40 Countries of Origin, including 5 children adopted from Bulgaria, the latest of which occurred in 2002.

Prior to ratification of Hague, only Registered Adoption Societies could be involved in the making of (mainly) domestic adoptions. With the passing of the Adoption Act 2010, the AAI can now accredit bodies to perform various functions connected with adoption. As of the start of September 2011, a total of 10 organisations have been accredited in Ireland, to provide services including assessment of applicants, domestic mediation, intercountry mediation, information and tracing.

To date, only one agency has been accredited to provide adoption mediation services for intercountry adoption into Ireland.

Under Ireland's new adoption laws, accredited bodies cannot be involved in the assessment of potential adoptive parents and in the mediation or placement of children. Therefore, all Irish resident applicants will first have to be assessed, and granted a Declaration of Eligibility and Suitability from the AAI, before seeking to adopt a child abroad.

Who can apply:

All applicants must meet a series of tests, which demonstrate their ability to provide a safe, secure and loving permanent home for a child in need of one. In the first instance all applicants must apply to Ireland's national health service - the Health Services Executive (HSE) - for an assessment. The HSE may allocate cases to accredited assessment agencies, and all cases must be sent to the AAI with a recommendation, so the Authority can decide whether or not to grant the applicants a Declaration. The following are the general criteria which determine whether applicants can apply:

Married couples, living together, are eligible to apply for adoption, as are single applicants. Unmarried couples cannot jointly apply for assessment, and cannot jointly adopt. In such a case, one person in an unmarried couple can apply to adopt as a single adopter.

Applicants must be habitually resident in Ireland, and have held such residency for at least 1 year.

While all applicants for assessment must be at least 21 years of age, there is no upper age limit set. Nor does the legislation specify any specified age difference between the applicants and any child considered for adoption.

The Adoption Process:

All applicants for intercountry adoption have to submit an application dossier, including medical and financial reports, as well as permissions for the assessing body to request police and child protection clearances.

Once the dossier is accepted, the applicants will be placed on a waiting list for a preparation course, followed by an assessment. The preparation course requires applicants - when called to attend either 3 full day, or 6 half-day seminars addressing a range of topics related to their forthcoming assessment, and the adoption of children from other Countries of Origin into Ireland.

After the completion of the preparation course, applicants must submit their "homework" based on a series of questions set within the preparation course. This homework, coupled with the original application dossier will provide the assigned social worker with a basis for conducting a series of 6 to 8 meetings with the applicants as part of their assessment. At least 1 meeting will take place in the applicant's home, and in the case of married applicants, will also involve individual interviews with each spouse. An interview will also be held with one set of referees provided by the applicants.

The assessment will include a discussion with the applicants on the Country of Origin they would like to adopt from, and the profile of the child they wish to adopt.

Based on this series of meetings, the dossier and homework, the social worker will prepare an assessment report, with a recommendation as to the applicants suitability. This recommendation will be sent to a local adoption committee, comprising a panel which will assess the report, and prepare a formal recommendation for submission to the AAI. All recommendations are sent to the AAI whether positive or negative, if the applicants which to proceed. The AAI can decide against the recommendation, and in the past has awarded a Declaration on occasion where the assessment report includes a negative recommendation. The assessment report should be evidence based.

The recommendation and assessment report will be considered by the AAI, which will then make a decision whether to award a Declaration to the applicants or not.

Irish applicants must specify in their application their Country of Origin. This can be changed during the assessment, or subsequently, in an addendum to their assessment report. However, they can only apply to adopt from a Hague Country, or a Country with which Ireland has a Bilateral Agreement on Intercountry Adoption. Currently, Ireland has no such Bilateral Agreements in place.

Once called for the preparation course, it is reasonable to expect the assessment to be concluded, and submitted to the AAI for decision within 12 months, though certain cases can take longer. However, depending on the region in Ireland which the applicants reside in, there can be a considerable waiting time to be called to the preparation course.

Only applicants who have been awarded a Declaration can apply to adopt abroad. The AAI has clearly indicated that all applications will have to follow the Hague process, and therefore all such applications must be transmitted through the AAI itself, or through a body to which it has delegated such a function. It is anticipated that later stages in the Hague Adoption Process will also have to comply with the appropriate Hague channels.

All adoptions are also now subject to the Article 17 pre-approval process. This means that all referrals of children in favor of Irish applicants will need to be approved in advance by the AAI before the adoption can proceed. In addition, it is clear that all such referrals should be sent of reconsideration for an Article 17 pre-approval before any referral is sent to the applicants themselves. Once an Article 17 approval has been granted, the appropriate immigration permissions in respect of the child referred can be applied for.

Where an Article 17 approval has been granted, the applicants can proceed with the adoption. They will need to ensure that the application complies with Hague, and that they receive an Article 23 Certificate from the Central Authority of the Country of Origin of the child. In particular, Irish applicants are encouraged to abide by Irish public policy on adoption. This means that Irish applicants are not permitted to adopt a child who has been placed for adoption before it is 6 weeks old; all consents must be properly obtained, and no monies can change hands from the applicants to the birth-parents of the child.

Once an adoption is completed in the Country of Origin, the applicants must inform the HSE of the adoption within 3 months of their return to Ireland. In addition, the adoptive parents must apply to the AAI for registration of the adoption in Ireland with 3 months of their arrival home. A failure to comply with either of these two requirements is an offense, and subject to a significant fine, or imprisonment on conviction.

Once the AAI is satisfied that the adoption was completed according to Hague, it will register the adoption on the register of foreign adoptions, and issue a certified copy of the entry in the register. This document effectively allows the adoptive parents to apply for an Irish passport for the child, and also to access various services on behalf of the child. This also creates important rights for the child in respect of Irish law.

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