AdoptionIreland calls for resignation of Adoption Board member
AdoptionIreland has today called for the resignation Sharon O'Driscoll from the Adoption Board, claiming that a conflict of interest exists.
Ms O’Driscoll has been appointed as CEO of the Helping Hands Adoption Mediation Agency, which has been licensed by the Irish Adoption Board and Vietnamese adoption authorities, and is now responsible for all adoptions from Vietnam to Ireland.
AdoptionIreland, which represents adopted people, says there is a conflict of interest when a member of the Adoption Board is also CEO of an adoption agency.
The organisation has also called for the full disclosure of the process of approval of the Helping Hands agency as well as what authority it will have, how it will be independently regulated and what methods it will use to approve adoptions.
The organisation, is also highly critical of the absence of an adopted person and natural parent on the Adoption Board.
Claire McGettrick, Post Adoption Support Worker with AdoptionIreland said: “Adoptive parents have always been represented on the board, and it is incredible that the government has not yet appointed an adopted person or natural parent.”
“In the week where emergency legislation was being rushed through the Dáil to protect Ireland's children, another state body, the Adoption Board, approved an agency to arrange adoptions from a country where child trafficking for the purposes of adoption is rampant,” said McGettrick.
“We need look no further than the Tristan Dowse case to see that the Adoption Board has failed in the approval of adoptions and the best interests of Vietnamese children are not being served by introducing a new agency without clearly defining how the agency will be regulated and by whom.”
AdoptionIreland has also reiterated its call for an end to all bilateral agreements with countries such as Vietnam who have not signed the Hague Convention for the Protection of Children in Intercountry Adoption.
“Vietnam is one of the most corrupt countries in the world, not least in the area of adoption and it is already inconceivable that this bilateral agreement is in existence,” said Anton Sweeney of AdoptionIreland.
“The launch of an agency completely dedicated to arranging Vietnam adoptions is beyond belief.”
