The Minister for Health and Children, Mr Cowen, should consider giving responsibility for the assessment of couples who apply to adopt children from abroad to suitably qualified contract workers, the deputy leader of Fine Gael, Mrs Nora Owen, said yesterday.
Due to a backlog at the Eastern Health Board (EHB), Mrs Owen said, "at the moment the delays amount to at least one year and in some instances well over a year, and this applies not just to couples applying for the first child but also to couples who wish to adopt a second child".
A consultancy report published by the Department of Health and Children in July, Towards a Standardised Framework for Inter- Country Adoption Assessment Procedures, had "specifically highlighted extra-long delays in the EHB area," she said.
An EHB spokeswoman denied that the report, which was commissioned by the Minister of State at the Department, Mr Frank Fahey, said this. "The report on inter-country adoption assessment did not show very significant differences between the length of time it takes to complete assessments in the EHB and other areas."
The spokeswoman added: "To date over 35 per cent of all adoption assessments in the country have been carried out by the Eastern Health Board.
"We have by far the highest application rate in the country - 73 per cent of all adoption applications are made to our board."
The EHB said additional resources for adoption assessment had been made available recently by Mr Fahey.
These would be used to reduce waiting times for assessment and recruit additional social workers.
Due to a shortage of social workers in Ireland, the board was recruiting additional staff in London and Manchester for all its services.
The EHB was the only health board to have a team of dedicated social workers dealing exclusively with adoption assessment, its spokeswoman said.
The duties for eight such posts were carried out by a team of nine social workers, some of whom work part-time. Two social workers had recently moved out of the service but the board was hoping to replace them.
Criticising the "extraordinary delays", Mrs Owen said "couples who dearly want to provide a good home to a child are being denied their rights because they cannot have their assessments carried out.
"The Minister for Health must take some urgent action to correct this problem and should consider having assessments carried out on contract by suitably qualified people to help clear the backlog."
