A man who claimed he was given no notice that his son was to be adopted was given leave by the High Court yesterday to seek an order quashing the adoption.
Mr Justice Geoghegan was told the child, now aged 13, has been adopted by his mother and her new husband and that the natural father of the child has been unable to have contact with him since 1992.
Ms Inge Clissman SC (with Ms Dervla Browne), for the boy's natural father, said the child was born in 1985. The applicant had lived with the mother of the child in a family unit for periods in the 1980s. But the mother of the child had married another man, and the natural father had been excluded from contact with his child since 1992. Ms Clissman said her client did not know the present address of the mother and did not know her husband's name. As a result of correspondence with a solicitor, the natural father had learned that an adoption order in respect of the child had been made in May 1997 by the Adoption Board, but he was notified only in July 1998 of the making of the order.
Ms Clissman said her client was entirely unaware that steps were being taken for the adoption of the child. He was not seeking custody but was concerned that he was excluded from a relationship with his child.
The European Court of Human Rights had ruled that a father who had had a family relationship with his child outside marriage and was not informed of the child's adoption had been deprived of his rights. Irish law had not caught up with that ruling, Ms Clissman said, and she accepted that decisions of the ECHR were not binding on the Irish courts.
However, she submitted that after that particular ECHR case, the Adoption Board had on April 6th, 1992, issued a policy document stating that wherever a natural father was in a continuous relationship with the child, he should be notified of any application to adopt the child.
Mr Justice Geoghegan granted leave to the man to seek an order quashing the adoption order in respect of the child.
