The Oireachtas Health Committee called for an independent regulator to ensure people who provide assisted human reproduction services are licensed, registered and properly qualified.

It is studying the recommendations of a report by the 20-member commission on Assisted Human Reproduction, which was set up in 2000 by the Government to study the issue.

Committee chairman John Moloney said up to 8,000 couples seek assisted reproductive assistance every year through nine clinics and 1,000 babies are born as a result in this way.

"There is no regulation whatsoever. People who staff these clinics may not have relevant professional expertise. There are no statistics or fees structure," he said.

Mr Moloney, a Fianna Fáil TD, said the issues like stem cell research, artificial insemination, surrogacy, cloning and sex determination posed fundamental ethical questions for the all-party committee.

Commission chairperson Professor Dervilla Donnelly told committee members that an independent statutory regulatory body must be set up and be accountable to the Minister for Health.

Labour health spokesperson Liz McManus said she could not think of a better advance in science than to offer a couple the chance to have a child.

But she added: "It is rather disturbing that there is no regulation. That is untenable."

Dr Jerry Cowley said an independent regulatory body was essential to prevent the exploitation of embryos but he hailed medical advances in assisted human reproduction.

"The exploitation of embryos is a major challenge to deal with," he said.

But he added: "Superman died looking for something nobody could give to him, which was regeneration of the spine."

Senator Mary Henry, who said she tabled a Seanad motion on the issue in the late 1990s, said the quality of care and the safety of patients was paramount.

It was a complex issue because of huge emotional involvement as well as financial implications, she noted.

But she added: "It may be irresponsible of us as a society to wait for 20 years to decide on this issue while we are stopping a man and a woman from the chance to have a child."

The Commission on Assistant Human Reproduction report said that embryos should only enjoy legal protection after being implanted in a woman's body.

In a documentary airing tomorrow night on RTÉ One called 'The Search for Tristan's Mum', Irish teacher-turned-journalist Ann McElhinney claims she tracked down the birth mother of Indonesian-born Tristan Dowse, who had been adopted by Co Wicklow accountant Joe Dowse (37) and his wife Lala shortly after his birth only to be returned to the orphanage.

The boy still remains at the orphanage while the courts determine his future.

But solicitor Gus Cullen, who represents the couple, said they only want what's best for the child despite the "one-sided" media reports painting them as cold and uncaring.

He said the couple tried to find Tristan's birth mother themselves before returning him to the Yorphanage outside Jakarta.

The complex legal wrangle between Ireland and Indonesia over Tristan's adoption is still before the High Court.

Read more news on Tristan Dowse and the RTÉ documentary 'Finding Tristan's Mum' (scheduled to air 6 Sept, 9.30 pm) at our Intercountry Adoption News section.

Also read the AdoptionIreland 7th September press release following the documentary.

The topic was homosexual adoption, which had featured in a number of newspaper reports suggesting a change in policy by the Adoption Authority. Some of my reasons were personal. I have become wary of an increasing tendency in what remains an overwhelmingly illiberal "liberal" media to present set-piece items on certain issues with a view to creating a particular aftertaste on the public palate.

In this instance, the token raging reactionary might be pitted against the gay grandee pluckily asserting his "rights". The presenter would likely feel the need to assert his or her "liberal" credentials by weighing in on behalf of the homosexual, resulting in the not entirely subliminal message that a powerless band of marginalised progressives are winning out against entrenched moral majoritarianism. Or something. After two or three such appearances, the word would go out that John Waters is "obsessed with homosexual adoption". (The imputation of "obsession" to political opponents is one of the recent tactics of "liberal" ideologues. Some columnists can write three columns a month about, oh, paedophile priests, but to write twice a year about the obscenity that is family law is to be an "obsessive".)

There was another reason for my declining to bat: the story, which originated with a claim in the Irish Catholic that several individuals living in homosexual relationships have applied to adopt, was a trifle overstretched. What had emerged was that, because is it now permissible for single people (for which read "single women") to adopt, it has become theoretically possible for homosexual couples to "acquire" a child, if one "partner" in such a relationship is successful in an adoption application.

Although the law insists that couples wishing to adopt must be married, single people may apply to adopt even if they are living with someone else. And since adoption procedures must nowadays comply with "all relevant equality legislation", it is not possible for the authorities to object to the orientation of an applicant's sexual relationship, even if they wished to do so.

People will decide about this on the basis of ideological or "moral" outlook. But it seems to me that the true abomination implicit in these developments remains out of sight.

Once, children could be adopted only by unimpeachable married couples, but the more recent requirements of what is termed "equality" have ensured the decommissioning of such judgments.

There is little point in being surprised by the inevitable consequences — indeed, it is probably only a matter of time before quota requirements ensure that a fixed proportion of all adoptions must be by gays. My objection to these developments is not especially related to homosexuality. I simply point out that almost every child who becomes available for adoption has a father as well as a mother, and that, even were common sense unavailable, the emerging science of child-rearing emphasises more and more the importance to psychic health of the presence of one or both parents in the early life of every human being.

Many adoptions nowadays are of foreign children, and these can have their own complications. When the child is Irish, the situation can seem straightforward, but only because a corrupted culture circumscribes our view of reality. Many domestic adoptions arise because an unmarried mother doesn't want to keep a child. There is a statutory requirement that the adoption authorities "take such steps as are reasonably practicable" to "consult" the child's father. But if the mother says she does not know who the father is, or where he can be found, this is enough to enable the process to proceed. It is possible for a father, if "consulted", to impede an adoption by applying to court for joint guardianship and, if successful, challenging the procedure; but it is unheard of for a father to be allowed simply to bundle up his child and take him or her home.

Hence the true obscenity of our adoption regulations is not that they have dispensed with moral judgment in relation to sexual proclivity, but that, in spite of such moves towards what is depicted as enlightenment, they have continued to perpetrate a grotesque denial of the mutual rights of fathers and children, on which the future well-being of those children may so heavily depend.

The result of the selective abolition of judgmentalism is that adoption legislation nowadays discriminates against just one category of human being: the child's father. Any natural father, given the opportunity to contemplate the matter, would be metaphysically offended by the prospect of his child being raised by another man, regardless of sexual orientation. If you wish to dismiss this as John Waters's "obsession", then be my guest. Just remember that this father may one day be your son, your brother or your nephew. It might even, conceivably, be you.

The interpretation by the Attorney General that the sexuality of a potential adopter should not preclude them from successfully applying to adopt is one that should be welcomed by all right-thinking people.

And with that in mind, it's no surprise that the likes of the loathsome, sanctimonious Mother And Child campaign should immediately be up on their hind legs about such a move.

A spin-off of everyone's favourite bunch of religious nutters, Youth Defence, the Mother And Child Campaign had previously come to attention earlier this year when they were accused of intimidating members of an Oireachtas committee and submitting forms covered with blood and what was mysteriously described at the time as "a saliva-like substance".

Speaking on RTÉ news last Thursday night, one spokesman for the Mother And Child Campaign spouted the usual claptrap that a child can only be brought up properly in a traditional nuclear family.

He then even had the gall to slip in the assertion that children adopted by a gay couple would "suffer gender identity issues and could face psychiatric problems later in life".

It was an appalling statement, managing to be insulting, crass and completely fallacious, all at the same time.

The jibe about potential psychiatric problems was an obvious nod to the old, and long-since discredited, theory that homosexuality was some sort of mental aberration — as opposed to simply being the way someone was born.

There are times when most of us try and simply ignore the Mother And Child Campaign and its head, Niamh O'Brian (the artist formerly known as Niamh Nic Mathuna), in much the same way that we try and ignore the organisation that spawned them, Youth Defence.

Because, let's face it, the kind of people who routinely traumatise children on the street with pictures of aborted foetuses can't exactly take the moral high ground when it comes to talk of protecting children.

But this is one area where their myopic and intellectually deformed reading of a situation is more deluded than normal.

After all, if one has the best interests of any child at heart, we would all agree that leaving them languishing in care when a couple is perfectly willing to offer them a loving home is rather less than ideal.

The likes of Mother And Child can try to dress up their arguments in pseudoscientific rubbish, but what they really mean is that they don't like gay people and they don't trust them to be around children.

According to the M&C campaign: "Individuals who practise a homosexual lifestyle are more likely than heterosexuals to experience mental illness, substance abuse, suicidal tendencies and shortened life-spans...Children reared in homosexual households are more likely to experience sexual confusion, practise homosexual behaviour, and engage in sexual experimentation."

That brief mission statement of cultural ignorance is interesting, if a little pathetic, on a number of levels.

There is absolutely no respected scientific research which backs up their first claim; while their second claim, that these children are more likely to "engage in sexual experimentation", simply provokes the response: so what? What's wrong about a little sexual experimentation now and again? Unless, of course, it's with the almost uniformly unattractive members of both Youth Defence and The Mother And Child Campaign.

Anyway, for a bunch of people so concerned about children, they don't seem too bothered about the fact that their beloved Catholic Church is not just the biggest sexual abuser of children in Ireland, but also that its actions in covering up abuse scandals in America have led to it being described by Christopher Hitchens as "the biggest paedophile protection ring in the world".

But then again, it would be naive to expect anything as complex as logical consistency from this lot.

The reliably mental Julie Burchill was back on our screens last night with the provocatively titled Reality TV Is Good For You.

Gleefully taking the contrary point of view, as ever, La Burchill claims that anyone who doesn't watch reality television or has the temerity to criticise it is simply a snob who doesn't understand working-class values.

While she has made a lucrative career for herself out of being a controversialist (she certainly wouldn't have made much of an impact with just her moderate writing ability and helium-fuelled voice) this assertion that anyone who doesn't get these programmes must automatically hate the working class is genuinely revolting.

No matter what position you take, only a moron could not be appalled that the repugnant Lizzie Bardsley — the work-shy, lazy, hyper-aggressive foul-mouthed shrew from Wife Swap — has somehow managed to become something of a celebrity.

This has nothing to do with class, and Burchill knows that.

Let's hope the viewing public figures that out as well.

So long, suckers. This will be my last Monday column for a month and 'ISpy' will also be taking a break.

After all the nonsense you lot have had to read over the past 12 months, it seems only fair.

Tristan Dowse was adopted by wealthy Wicklowman Joe Dowse and his Azeri wife and then abandonned in an orphanage in Jakarta.

The boy has now been reunited with his natural mother but the High Court here still has to decide whether to remove him from the register of adopted people.

Anton Sweeney of Adoption Ireland said today that the authorities should be doing more to clarify the child's legal position.

The four-year-old boy, who has been living in an Indonesian orphanage since being abandoned there two years ago by his adoptive Irish father, met his mother for the first time since his birth.

Tristan and his birth mother, Suranyi, have spent the past three weeks re-establishing their relationship after they were brought together by an RTÉ documentary team.

The emotional reunion will be shown in an hour-long programme on Tuesday night.

Although Tristan is still living in the Jakarta orphanage — where he has been renamed Irwin by orphanage staff — Suranyi has been visiting regularly to build up a rapport with him and there is a chance that the authorities will allow him to be returned to her.

Because he was born in Indonesia but has Irish citizenship, and there are doubts over the legality of his adoption, the toddler has been in a legal limbo ever since Joe Dowse, a wealthy Wicklow man now living in Azerbaijan, left him in an orphanage saying the adoption was simply "not working out".

While the authorities in Ireland and Indonesia have been working to untangle the legal dilemma, Ann McElhinney, an investigative journalist who first wrote about Tristan's story, tracked down Suranyi to a remote part of Indonesia and told her what had happened to her son.

"I said: 'He's beautiful and very healthy' and I asked her, 'What do you want to do?'," said McElhinney. "She said: 'I have to see him'." So McElhinney organised the transport and brought her to be reunited with her son.

"They're together now in Jakarta. We brought her back from Tegal (in central Java) to the orphanage."

The RTÉ documentary, entitled The Search for Tristan's Mum, charts McElhinney's quest to find Suranyi. It began in Jakarta where the paperwork in the adoption file showed Suryani's last known address, when she gave birth to Tristan in 2001.

McElhinney headed there and handed out fliers in the area, asking for information about the woman. "Somebody said 'I know her' and eventually we got an address in central Java," said McElhinney.

"I went on a train the next day and it turned out to be her mother's address, where I met her extended family."

At the time, McElhinney later discovered, Suranyi was living in Jakarta working in a food stall near a bus station.

Keeping the reason she was trying to contact Suryani secret from her family, McElhinney wrote her a letter and left it at the house in Tegal for her. In it she wrote the date of Tristan's birth and said if the date meant anything to get in touch with her.

On a previous visit to the country, McElhinney had secretly recorded a meeting with a woman called Rosdianah, who organised the adoption of Tristan by Dowse and whom Suranyi claims tricked her into giving her baby away.

The young mother said she had never meant for him to be adopted but rather taken into care because she could not afford to look after him.

In the documentary McElhinney meets the head of social services in Indonesia to see if they can help, but during the interview police seize the tapes of her meeting with Rosdianah.

As a result, a sting operation — also featured in the documentary — was launched in which undercover agents bought a baby from Rosdianah. She was subsequently arrested, along with her son and daughter, and they remain in custody facing charges of child trafficking.

The Indonesian authorities held a press conference saying they had broken up the baby brokering ring and Suryani's name was made public.

"She got scared and went home, and when she went home she got the letter," said McElhinney. "She contacted me and I flew out the next day and drove for six hours, straight to the house."

Many of the agencies who have been working on Tristan's case believe it is in his best interests to return to his natural mother. "We think the best outcome at this stage would be to reunite Tristan with his mother on a permanent basis," said Anton Sweeney of Adoption Ireland. "We are delighted that she was tracked down."

The Department of Foreign Affairs said: "We are aware that the child has met the mother and is spending more and more time with her. Our concern has always been the welfare of the child and anything that helps the welfare of the child is good."

Even though his natural mother has turned up to reclaim him, there is still a lot of legal wrangling to be sorted as Tristan holds an Irish passport.

In the meantime, the Attorney General has lodged a case in the High Court against the Dowses, in a bid to clarify the legal position. In order for the Indonesian authorities to allow Tristan to be re-adopted or returned to his mother, Tristan's name has to be removed from the Irish register of foreign adoptions.

John Collins, of the Adoption Board, the central adoption authority appointed by the government, welcomed the fact that Tristan had been reunited with his natural mother. A social worker from the board has made several visits to the orphanage in the past couple of months.

Collins said the Indonesian authorities will have to in- vestigate Suranyi's capacity to look after her son and the Adoption Board would be kept informed.

The Search for Tristan's Mum, will be broadcast on RTÉ One on Tuesday at 9.30pm.

There was much concern expressed for his mother by the mourners, who were themselves mostly parents from the local area. They prayed for her health and for her peace of mind. Although it appeared that the baby had not lived to draw a breath, there is no knowing whether the full-term child might have survived if he'd had proper assistance. Indications that the baby had been born in secret, without medical intervention, inevitably prompted questions about why such tragedies still have to happen. There is, after all, scarcely any stigma attached to unmarried motherhood any more and, however controversial it might be, there is still reasonable state and social support for women in that situation. It is difficult to imagine any circumstances in which the only apparent solution to an unwanted pregnancy is to give birth in secret and then dump the child's body on a skip. And as one of the mourners remarked, there are lots of childless couples in the city of Co Limerick who would gladly have given the baby a loving home.

In recent years, adoption has become the least popular option for single young women who find themselves with an unplanned pregnancy. Either they choose abortion, at a rate of about 20 a day, or else they decide to keep their babies and raise them as lone parents. The days when Irish children were available in sufficient numbers to meet the demands of domestic adoptive parents are long gone. Once a single girl has openly carried a baby to term, she is supported and encouraged to keep her child, and it has come to be seen as inhumane, outdated and discriminatory to suggest this may not always be the child's best start in life. Moreover, it is considered bigoted and backward-looking to hold the view that the young woman, also, might be better off without the huge responsibility of a child's care before her own life has even begun.

We have come to embrace alternative family models as a yardstick of our modernity, so that it has become positively primeval to hint that a family unit consisting of two parents, preferably one of each sex, is still the optimal environment for a child's development. We are far too broad-minded these days to acknowledge that children might actually benefit from having both a mother and a father in their life. Instead, the alternatives are championed and celebrated so enthusiastically that the idea of giving your child away to a couple who really want a baby is no longer seen as a valid option for a pregnant, distressed young girl. If it was, perhaps we wouldn't be burying several baby Aidans, those unclaimed little souls who turn up with depressing regularity in our rubbish bins and ditches every year.

In a way, the adoption story that hit the papers last week, revealing that three homosexual Irish couples had applied to adopt, was something of a red herring. If it was expected to create a scare about innocent Irish babies falling into perverted hands, then it was a non-starter. A same-sex couple haven't a hope of adopting an Irish child because priority, for the handful available annually, is still accorded to carefully vetted, securely married and profoundly heterosexual pairs. Nor is there any new market in foreign waifs being supplied with impunity to anybody who asks: single people have been able to adopt in this country for some time now, and there is nothing in the legislation to state that they are ineligible if they happen to be gay.

What is new is that the gay couples are seeking to adopt as couples, not as single people with partners who may subsequently apply for guardianship rights. It is an indirect bid to have the validity of their relationships recognised in law, in circumstances where the status of legal, foreign gay marriages is still a grey area. It puts our contemporary definitions of a family unit under the spotlight.

"Oh, a family is people and a family is love, that's a familee," Barney the dinosaur sings incessantly from my toddler's favourite video. "They come in all different sizes and different kinds, and mine's just right for meee." It's hard to argue with the purple chap on this matter. There are a great many single parents, male and female, bringing up their children in an exemplary fashion. Some child psychologists now suggest that children are better off in a calm and stable single-parent household than living amid the hostility of warring couples who stay together solely for the sake of the offspring. There are lots of grandparents taking care of the youngsters of their own immature, ill or awol children, and making a great job of it. And there are undoubtedly many homosexuals who have children and who love and care for them no less than their straight counterparts. If it is the case that gay couples are to adopt children and raise them in a same-sex household, then it is fair to assume they will have to meet all the standards and cross all the hurdles that heterosexual couples would face in the same circumstances.

A child's natural, heterosexual parents aren't always guaranteed to provide the best and happiest home life — those three little children effectively orphaned when their mother was battered to death and their father arrested for her murder in Spain last week are only the most recent proof of that. And a handsome, well-heeled, happily married straight couple aren't necessarily the best adoptive parents an impoverished lone woman could wish for her child — just look at the recent pictures of little Tristan Dowse after he was returned to his Indonesian orphanage.

We can all cite examples of contented, stable but irregular family units, just as the textbook family model often turns out to be a horror story rather than a fairy tale. But that shouldn't stop us being able to say that the best and most desirable type of family, where the interests of children are at stake, comprises a happily married heterosexual couple. However secure and established a same-sex couple may be, and however solidly legal their marriage is in the eyes of their state, they simply cannot provide a child with the same social and emotional environment as a mixed household. Men and women may not be from different planets, but they are very different creatures and they bring different strengths, gifts and insights to their relationship with their kids.

Just because some children may be better off being raised without the influence of an aggressive father or an alcoholic mother in their lives, it doesn't follow that they don't really need two committed, loving parents. We already accept that single women can be excellent parents. We should be free to acknowledge that a happy, united and responsible gay couple could make great parents, so long as we are not therefore prohibited from holding, as a basic principle, that a happy, united and responsible heterosexual pair would probably make an even better mum and dad.

But such a move would be a retrograde step, according to gay rights activists.

A spokeswoman for the campaign, Niamh Uí Bhriain, said evidence from other jurisdictions showed homosexual parenting was not in the interest of the child.

"Most Irish parents would be horrified to learn that their children could be given for adoption by homosexuals at the behest of a social worker and the Adoption Board," she said.

"The Adoption Act should be amended immediately to reflect the views of the majority of parents in this country, since no public support exists for homosexual parenting."

However, a spokesman for the Cork Gay Community Development Company said the real issue was one of equality. "Gay men and lesbians have been able to adopt under the Adoption Act," said Dave Roche.

"This is not a gay issue and it would be a completely retrograde step to specifically bar gays from adopting. It would be impossible, anyway, given our equality legislation."

Mr Roche said the campaign's stance was not alone homophobic but derogatory to men in general.

"This is buying into the notion that women are automatically the best carers. Men are capable of caring for children too. It is also disturbing for young gay men and women to have to listen to that kind of talk."

According to Alternative Parents Ireland, children of gay parents grow up in "versatile and varied families" with many female and male influences among the extended family.

"In Ireland, the law is now forced to come to terms with the existence of the alternative family bringing itself into line with other EU states, as the typical nuclear family is all but extinct," said API.

A spokesman for the Department of Health said yesterday that there were no plans to amend adoption legislation either specifically in favour or against gay people.

"Only married couples can apply as a couple. Single applicants can also apply and they would be assessed taking all the circumstances into account, like cohabiting. The Adoption Authority does not address the issue of sexual orientation.

"The key question to be addressed is what is in the child's best interests."

A new interpretation of the Adoption Act by the Office of the Attorney General makes it clear that social workers can permit either homosexuals or heterosexuals, cohabiting or single, to be considered as adoptive parents.

The Adoption Board, which must ultimately approve all adoption applications, has confirmed to the Irish Independent that single people are permitted to apply to adopt even if they are living with someone else — although the law permits only married couples to apply for adoption as a couple.

In effect, the interpretation clears the way for cohabiting couples, whether they are heterosexual or homosexual, to apply to adopt a child, so long as they do not make the application together.

The ruling also means that any person living alone — gay or heterosexual — can apply for adoption.

Anyone wishing to adopt a child either from Ireland or from overseas must be assessed by the health authorities and approved by the Adoption Board.

The relevant interpretation of the Adoption Act was communicated to the Adoption Board by the Attorney General within the past year, the board said.

Already three individuals living in homosexual relationships have applied to their local health boards for permission to adopt from abroad, a report in this week's Irish Catholic claims.

The Registrar of the Adoption Board, Kiernan Gildea, said that the interpretation from the Attorney General means a single person can be assessed for adoption regardless of whether they are living with someone — the person they are living with could be a parent, or simply a friend.

He admitted it was possible the board has already approved individuals for adoption who are in homosexual relationships; but if so, this had not been brought to their attention in any of the assessment reports sent to them for final approval. Mr Gildea would only say that 66 "sole applicants" have been approved for adoption over the past 13 years.

He added that the board strove to comply with all relevant equality legislation in assessing individuals for suitability to adopt.

According to The Irish Catholic, a social worker with the Inter-country Adoption Service for the eastern region confirmed to it that a lesbian couple was currently being assessed for adoption.

She said: "There is nothing to stop a gay couple from applying to adopt. A lesbian couple have already applied to adopt a child and their application is quite far ahead at this point in time. As of yet, there has been no declaration by the Adoption Board. It won't take a lot longer and should come quickly."

The advice from the Attorney General clearly implies that a single person can be assessed even when they are living with someone else when it states: "In the case of a single applicant, the board must be satisfied that the statutory criteria are met in relation to that applicant...it follows then that the assessment should be of the applicant and not of another person who is not, and who cannot by law be a co-applicant."

It then stipulates that where the sole applicant is living with another person, this fact should not be ignored.

"In many cases it might well be necessary to carry out a proper assessment of the applicant, eg where it is clear that the partner will be carrying out a considerable portion of caring for the child."

A spokesperson for the Health Service Executive also confirmed last night that homosexuals can apply for adoption.

David Quinn
Religious and Social Affairs Correspondent

There are, for example, lone-parent families, cohabiting couples with children, as well as so-called 'blended' families where a couple with children from previous relationships move in together or marry.

Even now, children in Ireland are sometimes raised by homosexuals either singly, or with a partner. Usually these children are from a previous heterosexual relationship, or else through surrogate mother abroad. Adoption by homosexuals is a subject that has not been publicly debated here. However, despite this, the reality of adoption by homosexuals now appears to be upon us.

At present the law in Ireland is that only married couples and single people can apply to adopt a child.

This would seem to rule out cohabiting couples. But a new interpretation of the Adoption Act by the Office of the Attorney General effectively allows cohabiting couples to apply for adoption so long as they do not do so as a couple. That is, the application must be made in the name of one person, and only that person will be assessed for the adoption even though they might be living with someone.

In addition, it clears the way for homosexuals to adopt because neither the Adoption Act, nor the Attorney's General's interpretation of the Act, makes any mention of the applicant's sexuality being a factor. Most people may believe the law permits only married couples to adopt and might be surprised to learn that it also allows single people to do so.

Aren't two parents better than one when raising a child, they might ask?

However, a child who is available for adoption has no parents, either because it has been abandoned, it has been given up for adoption, or the parents have died.

The thinking is that it is better for such a child to have one parent than none.

But if it is generally better for a child to have two parents, then why not allow cohabiting couples to adopt?

The present Adoption Act first came into being in 1952 although it has been amended since. In 1952 it was unthinkable that any couple other than a married couple could be permitted to adopt.

Obviously things have changed since then, and many couples now live together before they marry, if they marry.

What social workers are now permitted to do is to assess individuals living in a cohabiting relationship so long as they are not both being assessed for adoption.

That is, even though they are living together, only one will be the legal parent of the child.

The sexual orientation of the single person is deemed to be irrelevant, strictly speaking. The question a social worker must ask is whether the applicant would make a good parent regardless of their sexual orientation.

This will probably make some people uneasy as they will feel that a child has a right to be raised by a mother and a father, or at least by someone who is heterosexual.

Whether their feeling is correct or not is both a moral and a sociological question. In a way, the new interpretation of the Adoption Act might be termed an Irish solution to an Irish problem.

It means that the law is neither one thing nor the other. It does not explicitly allow homosexuals to apply to adopt children, but it does not explicitly bar them either. Therefore social workers are now permitted to assess homosexuals for adoption.

We need to decide, as a people, who should be allowed to adopt a child, and under what circumstances. It should not be left up to social workers and lawyers only.

In 1999 AdoptionIreland launched its own Adoption Contact Register, which has received over 6,000 registrations to date. One of the difficulties experienced by AdoptionIreland was the lack of an advertising budget which meant that most people would have to have internet access in order to be aware of the register. Hence, we are very happy that the Adoption Authority has publicised the NACPR so well, as it will include those who could not avail of such services before now.

Since the launch of the NACPR, AdoptionIreland has employed staff to cover its own helpline, which has received numerous calls from adopted people, natural parents and adoptive parents, as well as relatives and friends of adopted people and natural parents. These calls have consisted of enquiries regarding the NACPR, information on how to trace, as well as a large number of calls from people seeking support.

AdoptionIreland is planning to resume support meetings in the future and is also planning a series of public meetings to assist those who may have queries and those seeking support.

Ombudsman for Children Emily Logan said this "cruel situation" is allowed to continue because the rights of the family in the 1937 document supersede those of children.

Speaking at yesterday's hearings of the Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution, Ms Logan said: "The bottom line is that constitutionally, parents have inalienable rights which render the rights of children subordinate. It is time that Ireland as a society acknowledges that children too are independent and individual holders of rights."

Ms Logan, who was appointed Ombudsman a year ago, urged the committee to consider the needs of vulnerable children for whom constitutional protection was vital.

"Above anything else, what I hear from children and young people is a desire to be part of a family.

"However, this cannot happen because of the conflict between the constitutional parental right and the child's desire to have a family. These children remain invisible, their voices not heard. They're excluded from enjoying the stability and the loving environment afforded to most children.

"This is not just difficult for them. This is a very cruel situation considering we have 2,000 children living in long-term foster care situations." Children don't have specific rights in the Constitution as Article 41 protects the family unit based on marriage.

This has meant it is almost impossible to adopt the children of married parents even though some of those children may spend their entire childhood in long-term foster care. It is also difficult for the State to intervene in families where abuse has taken place.

Ms Logan said the Kilkenny incest case — in which a girl was continually assaulted and raped by her father from 1976 to 1991 — highlighted how the Constitution had failed children.

"You saw a situation where a child was left in a vulnerable situation, not just the child but the family in a difficult circumstance that went on for a long period and is totally unacceptable in this day."

The committee needed to study the findings of three recent reports and incorporate them into the Constitution, Ms Logan said.

She referred to the Kilkenny Incest Committee Investigation Report 1993, the Report of the Constitutional Review Group 1996 and the UN Committee Recommendations 1998.

The Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution, chaired by Fianna Fáil TD Denis O'Donovan, began hearing submissions last week on the role of the family in the 1937 document.

It is due to conclude hearings this week and compile a report.

AdoptionIreland wholeheartedly endorses the position taken by the Ombudsman for Children, Emily Logan, on the rights of children in care. We firmly support constitutional reform which will provide for and strengthen their rights.

With regard to children in long-term fostercare, we believe that they should, if they and their foster parents so wish, be adoptable by their foster parents where it is in their best interests, through either open adoptions (i.e., where their original identity is not concealed from them) and/or through extended guardianship.

Minister for Children, Brian Lenihan, TD, has published proposals in this area which we very much welcome, and a Bill is expected in Autumn 2005.

Serious questions must now be asked as to why the Irish Adoption Board recognised this adoption, when a simple check with the Indonesian authorities would have confirmed it's illegality. Procedures must now be reviewed to ensure that this can never happen again. This also demonstrates the immediate need for adopted people and natural parents who are already active in the adoption field to be appointed to the board of the Adoption Authority, along with the adoptive parents who are already there.

This situation goes to further prove that Ireland should not be recognising adoptions with countries who have not yet ratified the Hague Convention and indeed, calls into question whether we should be conducting foreign adoption at all until Ireland itself ratifies the Convention later this year.

AdoptionIreland must also call for the investigation of those involved in procuring the allegedly illegal adoption in the first place, and in the subsequent abandonment of Tristan when he became "surplus to requirements." Prosecutions, if warranted, should follow.

Everything possible must now be done to help Tristan, who is the innocent victim in all of this. AdoptionIreland is calling on the Irish Adoption Board to make every effort to locate Tristan's natural family and to compensate him for the wrongs he has suffered. A child sponsoship programme should be set up by the Board to allow him to remain in his own country and culture, if at all possible with his natural family.

"We are delighted that the Adoption Board has set up this service, which will allow adopted adults and their natural family to easily contact each other if they so wish. We're especially pleased that the Register was designed with real input and consultation all the way along from the people who'll be using it, adopted people," said AdoptionIreland chairperson Anton Sweeney, who was one of the members of an advisory group set up by the Adoption Board to oversee plans for the Register.

The Register's launch this morning will be followed in early April with a leaflet drop to every household in the country and an advertising campaign in newspapers and on radio. Adopted people over the age of 18 and their natural parents and family can register their preferred method and level of contact, which will be facilitated by the Adoption Board. It will also be possible to register a wish not to be contacted.

However, AdoptionIreland, who themselves have been operating a Contact Register for six years, are looking for more than just a State-run Register. "While it's great to finally see a properly funded and advertised Register being launched, it won't help those who were never told they were adopted. We still need the promised Information and Tracing Service to help their natural families to make contact. But more importantly, while the issue of post-adoption services is now being addressed, we cannot ignore the twin issue of post-adoption rights," said Mr. Sweeney.

"The Minister, Brian Lenihan, TD, has promised legislation later this year which will finally see adopted people and natural parents appointed to the new Adoption Authority, alongside adoptive parents, who've been there from since 1952," said Mr. Sweeney. "But we still lack the right to walk in and get our Birth Certificate just like any other Irish citizen," he said. "And we still don't have access to our adoption files, meaning we lack often vital medical information and a basic knowledge of where we came from."

For more information on the NACPR, the Adoption Authority has provided a freephone number: 1 800 309 300. Or if AdoptionIreland can answer any questions for you, email register@adoptionireland.com.

The longer term experiences of adoptees who had been reunited with a birth parent a decade or more ago are the focus of a Masters thesis by Albany based Julee Browning. She conducted her research with 20 adoptees ranging in age from 26 to 71 years. Her principal finding was that reunited relationships have no predictable pathways.

She presented her findings to interested peers and representatives of social agencies in a seminar The labyrinth of family membership in long term adoption reunion. From her research she had found that reunited relationships have no predictable pathways and are approached with varying levels of ambivalence and emotional strain. The relationships had no fixed pattern of family arrangements and relational boundaries.

It is now two decades since the passing of the Adult Adoption Information Act. This legislation made New Zealand the first country to give rights to both adopted people and birth parents to get identifying information from official records. By 2004 the number of adoptees who applied for identifying information had reached 31,247 and applications from birth parents numbered 8,648.

Previous studies suggest that the majority who made contact with each other, did form ongoing relationships. Much of the research to date has focused on the reunion event and the short-term post reunion relationship, says Ms Browning. Her research shows, that as time moves on, these relationships face many challenges in uncharted territory.

While her 20 case studies all have different stories to tell about how things had worked out 10, 20 or more years after the reunion, some major themes emerged from their experiences:

Some of the adoptees were grappling with notions of obligations to their birth family and how to handle them — whether to attend family gatherings, whether to exchange gifts. What should birth relatives call each other? What is the natural mother’s mothering role? How does the adoptee identify with the birth family compared with the adoptive family? Questions relating to inheritance also arose.

“At the onset of reunion it was unknown whether a relationship would form and be ongoing,” says Ms Browning. “They actually grappled with this at the time of reunion. Some are able to come to agreement but others leave it all unsaid and it becomes an ongoing challenge. So the agreement between the two parties (if there was one at all) can change over time. One member may over time want something different from what was initially agreed. This creates a problem because a barrier to communicate their wants and needs is difficult to manage. There is a very deep seated desire not to upset the apple cart and so often they live with the not quite so satisfying relationship,” she says.

The results of her research provide insight that could be valuable to adoptees in future dealing with reunited relationships and to those who advise or counsel people dealing with these issues. The research may also assist in understanding the issues surrounding the reunion between egg and sperm donors and their offspring in the future, says Ms Browning.

In summary, the new legislation:

• Ratifies the Hague Convention, thus providing some measure of protection to children who are subject to inter-country adoption;
• Establishes a new Adoption Authority to replace the Adoption Board (and for the first time ensures that Authority will actually have adopted people and natural parents as members);
• Establishes information, tracing and reunion services, including:
  • a National Adoption Contact Preference Register;
  • a National Adoption Information & Tracing Service;
  • a National Records Index;
  • an oversight and inpection role for the new Authority over voluntary adoption agencies, including the power to seize records;
• Gives the option of adoption to those over 18 who have been in long term foster care with the same family;
• Gives the Adoption Authority the power to attach conditions to an adoption order, thus allowing for ongoing contact with the natural family, where this is in the best interests of the child;
• Gives the option of guardianship for step and foster parents.

Although the legislation giving effect to these proposals has not yet been published (publication is expected in the Autumn), the Adoption Board are to proceed in advance of the legislation with the launch of the National Adoption Contact Preference Register and other services. This will be accompanied by a large publicity drive, including a leaflet drop to every house in the country.

However, the more complex issue of rights to access information has yet to be addressed. "Without taking away from what has been announced today, we can't forget that adopted people still must go through an entirely unnecessary and rigorous process just to get their own birth certificates, and we are still denied our own information from our adoption files. We've been promised that a further Bill will address these issues. We also wish to see an inquiry into past illegal adoption practices carried out by individuals and registered adoption societies."

More information on the proposals is available from the Department of Health and Children's website at http://www.dohc.ie/publications/adoption_legislation_2003_consultation_and_proposals_for_change.html.

AdoptionIreland intend to hold public meetings in Dublin and Cork in the near future in relation to the newly announced services.

The Golden Spider Awards recognize and reward excellence in the Irish Internet industry, which also includes the important community aspects of the Internet. To see a full list of the winners and websites short-listed for awards, visit the Golden Spider website.

AdoptionIreland US Coordinator, Mari Steed, undertook the task late this summer to redesign and update www.adoptionireland.com. In addition to this work, Mari has assisted with the design and update to www.magdalenelaundries.com, the official website of Justice for Magdalenes; www.bastards.org, adoptee rights group Bastard Nation's website; and a number of other freelance web projects through her web company culchie.works.

Please note, however, that the information on the changes to legislation is out of date.

Meanwhile, yesterday morning, Leo Enright on the RTÉ Radio 1's Today programme gave AdoptionIreland his recommendation for anyone searching.

The second item is an opinion piece that appeared in "Inside Cork", concerning the current adoption storyline in RTÉ's soap, "Fair City". AdoptionIreland fully endorse these sentiments. Despite several contacts from us, the Fair City producers declined to put up any contact details for any adoption-related organisations after any programmes featuring the adoption storyline. A simple way to reach hundreds, if not thousands, of women who placed children for adoption, and of course many adopted people. To them it appears to be just a good 'human interest' storyline. Pity they seem to forget that there are real humans out there affected by what they show...

Click here for the article.