Parents who give children for adoption to get rights on access

The Government will publish legislation in the autumn giving parents who give up children for adoption a right to retain access, the Minister of State for Children revealed yesterday.

Brian Lenihan said "open adoption" was the "current best practice" but as yet not enshrined in law. This would change under new proposals giving natural mothers and fathers an enforceable right to maintain contact with their children if they desired.

The Minister was speaking yesterday at the publication of a major report on adoption services in the State.

Carried out by researchers at UCD's department of social policy and social work, the report argued that more women would be encouraged to give up their children for adoption if open adoption agreements were put on a statutory footing.

"At present open adoption is a 'gentleman's agreement' between the adopters and the natural mother, the latter being very much at the mercy of the adoptive parents' willingness to honour the agreement," the report stated.

The number of non-family adoptions in the State has fallen from about 1,000 a year in the mid-1980s to just 76 in 2002. Most such adoptions are now categorised as open adoptions where contact ranges from a couple of visits a year to regular outings.

However, the report said: "The most common arrangement in open adoption is contact through letters and photographs, channelled through the adoption agency. This can be a two-way process, with letters and photos also passing from the natural mother to the adoptive parents and the child, although this latter arrangement is less common."

Mr Lenihan said legislation was only one part of making open adoption a "positive option" for women in crisis pregnancies. The relevant agencies must also "explain and market" it.

"As well as well as facilitating the growth of open adoptions this new policy will be particularly useful in allowing natural fathers and their families to maintain links with a child after adoption."

He said while it was impossible to give exact figures only 1 per cent of women were now seriously considering adoption as a solution to their unplanned pregnancy. "More women are now deciding to keep their children, and I believe that this is an indication of a society that has matured in its thinking towards single parents."

The Adopted People's Association welcomed the announcement on open adoptions, saying current arrangements "aren't worth the paper they're written on".

The group's campaigns manager Susan Lohan said: "At present natural and adoptive parents can back out of agreements. Agencies have been known to back out too."

The new Adoption Bill, which follows a two-year consultation process, will also regularise the status of inter-country adoptions, and provide for the establishment of both a voluntary contact preference register and an Adoption Authority, replacing the Adoption Board.