{"id":5002,"date":"2015-04-14T20:42:32","date_gmt":"2015-04-14T20:42:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.againstchildtrafficking.org\/?p=5002"},"modified":"2015-04-14T20:42:32","modified_gmt":"2015-04-14T20:42:32","slug":"no-appetite-to-uncover-scale-of-illegal-adoption-scandal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/old.againstchildtrafficking.org\/archive\/de\/no-appetite-to-uncover-scale-of-illegal-adoption-scandal\/","title":{"rendered":"No appetite to uncover scale of illegal adoption scandal"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Source:\u00a0http:\/\/www.irishexaminer.com<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Monday, April 13, 2015<\/p>\n

By Conall \u00d3 F\u00e1tharta
\nIrish Examiner Reporter
\nCalls for an audit of all the files held by accredited adoption agencies and by the State, so that the full scale of illegal adoptions and birth registrations can be uncovered, have always fallen on deaf ears, writes Conall \u00d3 F\u00e1tharta<\/p>\n

You really have to wonder how big a scandal needs to be before an Irish government decides to do the right thing and investigate the matter.<\/p>\n

The latest revelations \u2014 that the Government was informed by the Adoption Authority of Ireland (AAI) almost two years ago that there \u201cmay be thousands\u201d of cases where people had their birth history falsified so they could be illegally adopted \u2014 poses a very simple question: Why was this not investigated?<\/p>\n

The Department of Children and Youth Affairs was told by an AAI delegation in June 2013 \u2014 more than a year before the mother-and-baby home scandal \u2014 that there were \u201cat least 120 [confirmed] cases\u201d of illegal registrations. Not an insignificant number from the sample examined.<\/p>\n

However, the AAI went further, stating its belief that this could well be the tip of the iceberg and that there \u201cmay be thousands\u201d more. It named a well-known former private nursing home \u2014 St Rita\u2019s in Dublin \u2014 where women went to give birth to their children before having to place them for adoption, as a \u201chuge source of illegal registrations\u201d.<\/p>\n

It specifically named one religious-run former adoption agency \u2014 St Patrick\u2019s Guild in Dublin \u2014 as being \u201caware of several hundred illegal registrations\u201d, stating that the agency \u201care not seeking the people involved\u201d but were, rather, \u201cwaiting for people to contact them\u201d. The agency holds 13,500 adoption files \u2014 one quarter of all adoption files in the country<\/p>\n

In a statement to this newspaper, AAI chief executive Patricia Carey said that the \u201cmay be thousands\u201d comment made at the meeting was \u201ca throwaway remark\u201d and was \u201cnot based on verifiable facts\u201d.<\/p>\n

However, the fact that the department had called for a meeting on the subject and that an AAI delegation was willing to speculate at all on such a large number, indicates the issue was firmly on the radar of the adoption regulator.<\/p>\n

With all of this information, you would imagine that someone in Government would think that this warranted investigation. Instead, five months later, then children\u2019s minister Frances Fitzgerald told the D\u00e1il she \u201chad no plans to initiate an audit of all [adoption] files\u201d.<\/p>\n

She also claimed that all adoptions \u201cwhich the Irish State has been involved in since 1952 have been in line with this [Adoption Act 1952] and subsequent adoption legislation\u201d. This claim was repeated on two separate occasions by her successor, Charlie Flanagan.<\/p>\n

Both made the claim despite the fact the full-scale audit of adoption records held by the State and accredited adoption agencies which could prove the claim has ever been carried out.<\/p>\n

To adoption campaigners, this came as no surprise. They have long called for an audit of all adoption files held by accredited adoption agencies and the State so that the full scale of illegal adoptions and birth registrations can be uncovered. These calls to both the department and the AAI have always fallen on deaf ears.<\/p>\n

However, it has now emerged that the decision not to order such an audit was made in the knowledge that the department was informed by the very body charged with regulating adoption in Ireland \u2014 the AAI \u2014 that it believed there \u201cmay be thousands\u201d of cases of illegal birth registrations.<\/p>\n

Why? The Irish Examiner put a series of questions to the department asking why it had not acted on this information and launched an investigation. Did it not feel that the AAI\u2019s belief that thousands of people in the country had their identities falsely registered \u2014 a criminal offence \u2014 warranted investigation?<\/p>\n

The department declined to respond to the specific questions asked, but said a full audit of adoption records would be \u201cof very limited benefit\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is important to note that the only way information generally becomes available is when someone with knowledge about the event comes forward\u2026 There is little, if any, supporting information in relation to these arrangements… Accordingly, an audit of all adoption records would be of very limited benefit in establishing the number of illegal registrations that took place,\u201d said the statement.<\/p>\n

However, the very body regulating adoption seems to think differently. The 120 cases mentioned by the AAI in the June 2013 note refer to a 2010 audit it carried out of its records on foot of an Irish Examiner story on the case of Tressa Reeves, whose son was illegally adopted and falsely registered as the natural child of the adoptive parents without her consent. This was facilitated by St Patrick\u2019s Guild who allowed the couple to take the child without a formal adoption order being made.<\/p>\n

The audit uncovered approximately 99 cases, while a further 20 were identified in the following years. In a report prepared for the department in June 2011, the AAI said it considered carrying out a more comprehensive audit of the cases it uncovered, but because of the transfer of senior personnel and the \u201cpressure on resources of the imminent establishment of the Adoption Authority no further action was taken\u201d.<\/p>\n

So clearly, the AAI felt the number of cases it uncovered in its own files warranted further investigation and \u201ca more comprehensive audit\u201d.<\/p>\n

The statement by the department that there is \u201clittle, if any, supporting information in relation to these arrangements\u201d is also contradicted by a record of a meeting between two nuns from St Patrick\u2019s Guild and representatives from Tusla, the Child And Family Agency, which states that the agency\u2019s records contained \u201csome illegal registrations\u201d and, crucially, that \u201cfull details are available on the majority of cases\u201d.<\/p>\n

The agency is in the process of transferring its records to Tusla.<\/p>\n

Why was none of this immediately investigated by the State?<\/p>\n

Despite being aware of this almost two years ago, no full audit has been carried out of adoption records nor is one planned. Despite loud and repeated calls from a range of adoption groups, St Patrick\u2019s Guild was also excluded from the mother-and-baby home inquiry.<\/p>\n

The agency has been making headlines for decades. In 1997, former justice minister Alan Shatter said the behaviour of the agency in relation to how it dealt with adopted people and natural mothers looking for information about their identity was \u201calmost beyond belief\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is unacceptable that an adoption society such as St Patrick\u2019s Guild has deliberately misled people by giving grossly inaccurate information, both to adopted persons and to birth mothers, with regard to the background to their adoption,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is almost beyond belief that an adoption society deliberately set out to tell adopted persons the wrong names, wrong dates of birth and the wrong ages of the birth mothers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adoption, specifically forced and illegal adoption, has always been the elephant in the room for the State in relation to the mother-and-baby home inquiry. Adopted people and birth mothers are waiting decades for tracing and information legislation to grant them basic identity rights. They get told it is very \u201ccomplex\u201d but work is \u201cprogressing\u201d. One wonders if offering tracing rights and opening up adoption files may open up another can of worms the State would rather stay firmly closed.<\/p>\n

 
\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source:\u00a0http:\/\/www.irishexaminer.com Monday, April 13, 2015 By Conall \u00d3 F\u00e1tharta Irish Examiner Reporter Calls for an audit of all the files held by accredited adoption agencies and by the State, so that the full scale of illegal adoptions and birth registrations can be uncovered, have always fallen on deaf ears, writes Conall \u00d3 F\u00e1tharta You really… Weiter »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.againstchildtrafficking.org\/archive\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5002"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.againstchildtrafficking.org\/archive\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.againstchildtrafficking.org\/archive\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.againstchildtrafficking.org\/archive\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.againstchildtrafficking.org\/archive\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5002"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/old.againstchildtrafficking.org\/archive\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5002\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5004,"href":"https:\/\/old.againstchildtrafficking.org\/archive\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5002\/revisions\/5004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.againstchildtrafficking.org\/archive\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.againstchildtrafficking.org\/archive\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.againstchildtrafficking.org\/archive\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}