Bill will allow accreditation of agency to facilitate inter-country adoptions
By Conall O Fátharta
Wednesday, June 09, 2010
A NEW adoption agency to facilitate inter-country adoptions for Irish people is scheduled to launch in September.
The new agency is to be called Arc, and will be headed up by Shane Downer, the former chief executive of the International Adoption Association (IAA).
Arc has received provisional approval from the Adoption Board to operate as an accredited agency. It will be a paid-for service but is also understood to be seeking some state funding.
Mr Downer said Arc could only become a fully accredited body when the Adoption Bill, currently in its final stages, is passed.
"The Bill will hopefully be passed in the next few weeks. Then we can get things finalised and get things moving along. My hope is to establish accredited programmes with two countries by the end of the year and with two more by the end of next year," he said.
The Adoption Bill will see Ireland finally ratify the Hague Convention. To date, of the 55 countries who have signed up to the convention, only Ireland and Russia have failed to ratify it. Ireland signed the convention in 1993.
It will ensure that Irish people approved to adopt from abroad will only be able to adopt children from a Hague Convention country or from a country with which Ireland has a bilateral agreement.
Mr Downer said the organisation would have a commitment to openness and transparency and would also develop post-adoption services, based on research with adoptive families, adopted adults and children as well as with experts in child development.
"We will have staff in each of the countries we are involved with as well as offices. We are committed to providing an open and transparent service. We intend to have a visible presence in the countries we operate in. That’s what we need here, a proper infrastructure in place that will be open and transparent and that holds the agency to account," he said.
This story appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Wednesday, June 09, 2010