Phd student working on new body to help overseas adoptions
The Adoption Board has given the go-ahead to a new agency to provide adoption mediation services in Ireland.
Called Leanbh, it will assist with overseas adoptions. Leanbh was first proposed last year and has received approval in principle from the Adoption Board. Some additional paperwork and legal checks need to be finalised before full approval is given.
Leanbh will be the third organisation of its kind to be registered in Ireland. Mediation agencies help couples who are seeking to adopt from overseas to liaise with local authorities, and also help them with the extensive paperwork that is involved.
Senior figures involved in Leanbh include Shane Downer, chief executive of the International Adoption Association (IAA).However, the new agency will operate independently of the IAA in order to ensure there are no conflicts of interest in the process.
Separately, the Adoption Board has set up a group to review a proposal for an independent adoption assessment agency, which could speed up the assessment of people who want to adopt.
Members of the review panel include Norah Gibbons of Barnardos and Liz Canavan, principal officer at the Office of the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs.
The decision-making arm of the Adoption Board, headed by chairman and family law expert Geoffrey Shannon, said it wanted the review carried out quickly, with a view to giving a decision within a few months. The promoters of the proposed agency, which is backed by the IAA, lodged a formal proposal with the Adoption Board in June.
The group claimed it could carry out 300 adoption assessments a year at a cost of €1.35 million. The organisation will be not-for-profit and hopes to receive its funding from the Office of the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs.
The group’s proposal said it took ‘‘on average four to six years to be assessed for intercountry adoption’’ in Ireland. It estimated there were 2,000 applications either waiting to start or working their way through the system. It hoped to become operational in January next year, and said it would carry out adoption assessments within a year.
At the moment, the Health Service Executive completes 95 per cent of assessments in Ireland. It then makes a recommendation to the Adoption Board, which is the only organisation that can grant a declaration of eligibility and suitability to adopt. The promoters of Leanbh claimed it would free up social workers and save the state money.
The organisation is being promoted by senior figures in business and healthcare, including Communicorp chairwoman Lucy Gaffney, developer Michael Cullen and the former chief executive of Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin, Michael Lyons.
The board also includes Ultan Shannon, a partner with Arthur Cox Solicitors; Dr Elizabeth Nixon, a psychology lecturer at Trinity College Dublin; Mark Brennock, director of public affairs with Murray Consultants; and Brian Kearney, a PhD student in the UCD School of Sociology.