The Gazette 1973

Robinson said that for a long time, Family Law had

not been taken seriously in Ireland as a subject in

the University Course in Law, but this was now being

remedied in Trinity College and in University College,

Dublin; she then gave particulars of the extensive

course in this subject in Trinity College.

The Irish Adoption Acts:

As regards legal adoption, Ireland was very slow to

make provision for it. Legal Adoption had been intro-

duced in England and Wales in 1926, in Northern

Ireland in 1929, and in Scotland in 1930. In the

Republic, eventually an organisation called the Adop-

tion Society (Ireland) was formed in 1948, but, owing

to ecclesiastical pressure, there was some delay in intro-

ducing legislation, on the ground that the right of the

natural mother and child should be respected..

In 1952, the Government, having received the tacit

approval of the Hierarchy, decided to introduce an

Adoption Bill. This provided for the setting up of an

Adoption Board with a Chairman with legal training,

and six voluntary lay members. The Board may in

suitable cases make adoption orders, but the child to

be adopted must be illegitimate or an orphan, and

be between the ages of 6 months and 7 years. The

applicants must be a married couple or a widow of

the same religion as the child and his parents, but

in the event of a mixed marriage with a Catholic, no

adoption can take place; they must be suitable and

of good moral character. When adopted, the child will

have the same status and property rights as if it were

legitimate, and consequently the natural guardian

loses all parental rights. The Adoption Act 1964 makes

minor amendments, and provides for the adoption of

legitimate children, and the Board can in limited cir-

cumstances extend the time for applying for an adop-

tion order. In the case of an application by a married

couple, the application will be granted only if they

have been married for at least 3 years, and are over 25

years of age.

Adoption case law:

As to case law,

The State (C.A.) v. The

Adoption

Board

—(1957)

I.J.R. decided to quash an application

for adoption where the husband was unaware that his

wife had made the application. In

Re J. An Infant

(1966) I.R. the natural mother had subsequently

married the putative father, after the child had been

adopted, and successfully applied to the High Court

to have custody of the child on the ground that the

child had been legitimated by subsequent marriage,

and that they were consequently a "Family" within

the Constitution. In the

State (Nicolaou) v. The

Adoption

Board

—(1966)

I.R.—the Supreme Court up-

held the constitutionality of the Adoption Act 1952

insofar as the Board had refused the application of a

putative Cypriot father to have custody of his daughter,

not to refuse to make an adoption order without hearing

him; the Supreme Court stated that the applicant had

no natural personal right in respect of the child, which

seems very stringent, and is in complete contrast with

the recognition of the rights of a natural father in

the British Guardianship of Minors Act 1971.

There has been great pressure urged for reform in

Adoption law—in fact a Private Members Bill was

introduced in 1971 and was printed as the Adoption

Bill 1972. On the second reading debate in July 1972,

the Minister for Justice stated tfrat the Government

would introduce a similar Bill before the end of 1972,

but this has not yet been forthcoming. What is really

required is a Special Committee to be set up by the

Government to survey the whole working of the adop-

tion procedure in Ireland; up to now, only minimal

statistics are available.

Adoption reforms:

The present legislation on the subject in Northern

Ireland is the Adoption Act of 1950, under which

many useful regulations were issued. But the Irish

Adoption Board has no statutory authority to issue

regulations. In 1969, the Irish Adoption Board sub-

mitted to the Minister, some suggested amendments

to the Act; but for some obscurantist reason, Mr.

Moran, the then Minister, rejected it and the proposed

amendments. In England, there have been a great

many important surveys on adoption, including the

Guide to Adoption Practice published by the Advisory

Council on Child care in 1970, known as the Houghton

Report. There has been an unfortunate failure in the

Republic to appreciate the importance of adoption as

part of Social Legslation.

Specific proposals for reform:

Nowadays, sociologists like Father Good have come

to realise that adoption should be primarily a process

for finding a home and family for the homeless

children. At present, the legislation is allegedly child-

centred inasmuch as the welfare of the child is the

first and paramount consideration but in fact it is

mother-centred, inasmuch as the dominant idea in the

Act is that the child is the property of the mother,

and, short of killing or physically maltreating it, she

can do just what she likes with it. If the mother wishes

within the statutory period to get the child back, there

are no safeguards provided for the child's welfare. It

is proposed to amend Section 5 by extending the age

under which children can be adopted from 7 to 18

years, and not to confine them to illegitimates and

orphans. Section 6 could be amended by the provision

that, if the mother of a child unreasonably with-holds

her consent to an adoption order, then the Board could

dispense with such consent and issue the order. In fact,

the President of the High Court had thus held in April

if the mother disappeared and could no longer be

found.

Under Section 8 of the proposed 1971 Bill, the

Adoption Board can send out optional recommenda-

tions to the Adoption Societies, if unsatisfactory, the

Board, can cancel their registration. No provision has

been made for a "Case Committee" of 3 persons to

study the case which is standard practice in England

and Northern Ireland. If the Board refuses to grant

an Adoption Order, then the local authority must take

custody of the child under the Children's Acts, but

in practice the local authorities leave the child with

the unsuitable adoptors for a long time. It is also time

in accordance with the present Minister's undertaking

that adoptors who have contracted a mixed marriage

with a Catholic should not be deprived of the facilities

to adopt. It would also be necessary to amend the

form of the Catholic Baptismal Certificate, which refers

specifically to "Adopters" and to the date of the

Adoption order.

Effect of foreign divorce:

The whole problem had been considered by Kenny

in Caffin Deed .—Bank of Ireland v.

Caffin—

(1971)

I.R. 123. The first difficulty was to construe Article