Labour T.D. for Cork South-West Michael McCarthy has welcomed confirmation that Minister Frances Fitzgerald has asked the Adoption Association of Ireland (AAI) to examine the feasibility of establishing a bilateral agreement between Ireland and Ethiopia.
“In recent days Minister Fitzgerald announced that she wrote to the AAI approving the commencement of a process to examine the feasibility of establishing a bilateral agreement with Ethiopia. The AAI have now commenced this process and, with the assistance of the Irish embassy in Addis Ababa, they have sought an expert legal narrative and description of the current Ethiopian adoption law. This will be examined by the AAI to test for compatibility and compliance with our own Adoption Act 2010.
“This represents a very significant milestone in seeking to promote relations between the Ireland and Ethiopian adoption authorities, and follows ongoing efforts by myself and others in recent months to highlight the plight of many Irish parents who are unable to adopt from Ethiopia because is not signed up to the Hague Convention. Whilst we must at all times respect the ethos of the convention – which establishes minimum standards for the protection of children in the inter-country adoption process – it is equally important that we examine the possibility of forming links with non-Hague countries who due to limited resources, are not able to become signatory countries. An important point here is that worldwide, 80% of all inter-country adoptions are from non-Hague countries and only 20% are from Hague countries.
“Last month in the Dáil I called on Minister Fitzgerald to establish a bi-lateral agreement with Ethiopia in order to facilitate inter-country adoptions between our two countries. While Ireland presently has no bilateral agreements, history shows that Ireland’s recently renewed relationship Vietnam was an exceptionally positive collaboration and therefore there is no reason why an equally productive link cannot be established with Ethiopia. Australia already has a bi-lateral agreement with Ethiopia, and I believe this is applicable to our own situation in Ireland.
“I will continue to bring the concerns of Irish parents to the attention of Minister Fitzgerald and will be keeping a close eye on the AAI and the Minister’s efforts to establish this critically important agreement with Ethiopia.”
Issued: Monday January 23, 2012 