The High Court yesterday granted an order authorising the Adoption Board (An Bord Uchtβla) to make an adoption order in favour of the proposed adoptive parents of a 12-year-old girl. They have looked after the child for the past 10 years.
The application for the order had been contested by the child's birth mother. Mr Justice O'Higgins, allowing the application, said it was his view the birth mother, who was 17 when the child was born, had over a period of nearly 11 years abandoned any aspirations to have a parental role with her child. He found the birth mother, who is now aged 29, had had no desire since January 1992 - over two years after the birth - to care for the child and had no present or future plans to assume such a role.
He said the birth mother had in 1990 indicated she wanted to have the baby put up for adoption. She also left a psychologist with the impression that she would not object in principle to her daughter being adopted. The same psychologist had found her to be functioning within what was called the upper range of mental handicap. Mr Justice O'Higgins said the child was fortunate in that she was in a healthy, loving and caring environment.