Up to November of last year 665 foreign adoptions had been recognised by the Adoption Board, and the number is growing at about 100 a year. In 1995, for example, the last year for which there are complete figures, there were 102 applications for recognition of foreign adoptions, of which 93 were recognised.
This reverses the trend of the 1940s and 1950s, when homes could not be found for all the children available in Ireland for adoption, and many were adopted abroad, mainly in the US. Some of these adoptions were of doubtful legality.
This is the background against which the Law Reform Commission has produced its most recent consultation paper, The Implementation of the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in respect of Inter-country Adoptions, published today.
The Hague Convention was concluded and signed in May 1993. It was a response to a growth in the number of couples in wealthier countries, where there is a decline in the number of children available for adoption, seeking them in poorer countries.
Each year some 20,000 children are adopted across national frontiers and, according to the Law Reform Commission, this figure is expected to increase.
In the absence of international agreements a number of difficulties have arisen with such adoptions. "The lack of safeguards and regulation has allowed the falsification of birth records, the coercion and bribery of natural parents, and in some cases the sale and abduction of children," it says.
The Hague conference identified a need for legally-binding standards, brought about through regulation and co-operation between the country of origin of the child and the receiving country.
It specifies that the adoption must be in the best interests of the child, as against those of the natural or adoptive parents. It does not seek to set out an international adoption law, but to establish a basic framework within which national adoption laws can be accommodated.
The Law Reform Commission is concerned with bringing Irish adoption law into line with the Hague Convention, and makes a number of recommendations to bring this about.
While in practice the vast majority of adoptions affected by Irish adoption law will concern children brought into the State from other countries, it recommends changes which would affect Irish children being adopted abroad. This includes consulting the child, where appropriate.
It identifies a weakness in the most recent Irish adoption legislation, the 1991 Adoption Act, which seeks to regulate foreign adoptions, in that it does not provide for co-operation between the two states concerned. It was passed before the Hague Convention came into being.
A number of the changes in Irish legislation suggested by the Commission mean extending to children adopted outside the State the same protections offered to those normally resident here.
These include the provision that a child cannot be removed from the jurisdiction without the consent of parent, guardian or relative.
Until recently only children born to unmarried parents were eligible for adoption in Ireland, which was not the case in many other countries. This has been modified to include cases where the parents "failed in their duties towards the child".
There was some question as to whether children born to married parents and abandoned were eligible for adoption under Irish law. It took a Supreme Court case to establish that the total abandonment of a child shortly after birth would constitute a failure of parental duty in any culture.
In general, the Commission recommends that the Irish authorities should not refuse to recognise a foreign adoption on the sole basis that the child was not eligible for adoption under Irish domestic law.
It also recommends that the provision of counselling for intending adoptive parents should be placed on a statutory footing.
It makes a number of recommendations concerning the immigration procedures to be used in the case of adopted children. At the moment there is no control or monitoring of the number of children being brought into the State by their adoptive parents.
This means, not only that the immigration laws could be circumvented, but also that children may not receive the services to which they might be entitled. The Department of Justice should work in close co-operation with the Central Authority dealing with the adoption, it says.
It suggests that the Adoption Board should be the central authority regulating all adoptions, foreign and domestic, in Ireland.
The Commission also suggests that the status of all bodies dealing with adoption be clearly established and, in particular, that they be non-profit-making. The Adoption Board should have the power to ask overseas agencies to carry out certain functions on its behalf.
Already some adoptions have been made, especially from certain Latin American countries, which do not qualify as "full" adoptions under Irish law, because the natural parents retain some rights. The Commission recommends that Irish law should recognise such adoptions if the necessary consents are obtained.
Those wishing to make submissions before the Commission's final report on this whole issue is published are asked to do so before December 20th, 1997.