A few decades ago, Irish attitudes towards adoption were clear - women giving birth outside marriage should give up their babies to be adopted by couples who had no children of their own. Today we do not seem to know what to think. Adoption of Irish babies has almost disappeared and the term itself invariably refers to the adoption of foreign children by Irish couples.
A great many people see it as desirable that children should be rescued through adoption from dreadful conditions in Eastern Europe and elsewhere. Today, we report on such conditions in some Russian institutions investigated by Human Rights Watch. But this newspaper also reported yesterday that some couples whose assessments by Eastern Health Board social workers began in March of this year had been waiting for such assessments since October 1996. Is that a reasonable way to treat prospective adoptive parents? The situation has improved: for people applying now it will take only 10 months to get to the start of the assessment which will then go on for another six to nine months.
There is little the social workers or the health boards can do about this. Social workers have no say over the allocation of resources by health boards and there is no point in blaming them for delays of 10 months or two years before assessments begin. Health boards have so many calls on their child protection services that it is entirely reasonable that they allocate the bulk of their resources towards working with Irish children.
The Minister of State for Children, Mr Fahey, has spoken of the possibility of getting Irish voluntary adoption societies to carry out assessments of couples wishing to adopt abroad. This is a suggestion that should be examined carefully by adoption societies who no longer have Irish children to place for adoption. It would be one way to remove waiting lists which impose enormous stress on couples and which have the potential to sour the relationship between themselves and the social workers who assess them.
This need not involve any "fast-tracking" of adoption assessments. Children who may be adopted by Irish couples are entitled to have these couples' suitability carefully assessed. Moreover, a great deal of work should go into preparing couples for working with children whose development has been disrupted by neglect or trauma.
The issue, of course, is wider than foreign adoption. Over 3,000 Irish children are in care. Among these, are some whose parents will never be able to look after them. But, because these parents are married, it is virtually impossible for these children to be adopted. Surely it is time for a debate about easing the law in this regard?
And is it not time also for a debate about devising a form of adoption which would appeal to those thousands of Irish women who now travel abroad for abortions?