The Adoption Bill fails to provide important rights for adopted people and natural parents because it is being passed before a referendum on the rights of children, the Council of Irish Adoption Agencies has warned.
"We take the view that it is a case of putting the cart before the horse. We needed a referendum on the rights of the child and then an Adoption Bill," said Marian Bennett, a HSE social worker and member of the Council, yesterday.
Ms Bennett said the proposed legislation, which is currently passing through the Oireachtas, would not provide adopted children the legal right to trace their birth parents. Neither would it provide the statutory entitlement to post adoption services such as counselling for children or families affected by adoption, she added.
"The referendum on the rights of the child is long overdue. I think there has been a loss of impetus with regard to the issue," said Ms Bennett at the launch of a new guide book for social workers, An Ethical Framework for Adoption in Ireland.
The Government said it would introduce a constitutional amendment on the rights of children following the "Baby Ann" case in 2006. In this landmark case the Supreme Court ruled that a two-year-old girl should be returned to the custody of her birth parents following an adoption.
The girl, known as Baby Ann, was offered up for adoption by her parents who were unmarried at the time. The parents withdrew their consent for the adoption and married a month before the High Court proceedings. The five-judge court unanimously upheld an appeal by the natural parents of the girl against a High Court decision directing that Ann remain with her would-be adoptive parents.
In the case the constitutional protection afforded to the institution of the family overruled the rights of the child.