THE GOVERNMENT has asked Russia to remove Ireland from an adoption blacklist that could prevent hundreds of Irish couples from adopting Russian children.
Minister for Children Barry Andrews met officials at the Russian embassy last week to press the case for several hundred couples who are in the process of trying to adopt a child.
Moscow placed almost all Health Service Executive (HSE) regions on its latest blacklist because it says it did not receive reports on the welfare of all the children adopted in Russia by Irish couples in the past four years. The Russian embassy said earlier this month it was seeking up to 70 post-placement reports from parents who adopted Russian children.
Mr Andrews said yesterday he told Russian officials that more than half of the 65 outstanding post-placement reports, which Moscow is seeking, had already been sent to the Russian embassy.
He said the majority of the remaining reports had been completed by the HSE and were now with the parents of the adopted children.
He said that in a small number of cases adoptive parents had not engaged with the HSE, preventing completion of the reports.
“It appears that there has been a positive response to calls for parents to engage with the HSE and progress is being made in this respect,” said Mr Andrews.
“On the basis of the information provided and the progress being made, I asked the Russian embassy to convey to the ministry for education and science in Moscow our continued commitment to work with Russia and asked that the Irish regions listed on the ‘blacklist’ be removed as soon as possible.”
Mr Andrews said the Irish Embassy in Moscow was also working through diplomatic channels to have the blacklisting lifted in respect of all Irish regions.
The Government denies that the HSE bears any responsibility for the failure to provide the post-placement reports to the Russian authorities.
It says neither the HSE nor the Government has any power to compel the Irish parents of children adopted from Russia to provide the reports to Moscow.
This is disputed by some Irish couples who have successfully adopted children from Russia. They claim the HSE is not living up to its responsibilities in preparing the welfare reports.
In 2008, 117 Irish couples adopted a child from Russia. Some 1,229 children adopted from Russia have been included on the Adoption Board’s register of foreign adoptions since 1991.
Russia has become increasingly concerned about the welfare of the tens of thousands of its citizens who have been adopted by foreigners following the deaths of several adopted children in the US in recent years.
An incident this month involving an US nurse, who placed a seven-year-old Siberian boy she had adopted on a one-way flight to Moscow because she could “no longer cope with him”, has served to increase sensitivities in Russia about adoption.