New legislation governing international adoptions by Irish people, which comes into force next month, will limit the number of countries from which prospective parents can adopt children.
The Hague Convention comes into force here on 1 November and from that date Irish people will only be allowed to adopt children from countries with bilateral agreements with Ireland or which have also signed up to the Convention.
The Hague Convention is an international best practice piece of legislation designed to standardise international adoptions and reduce the risks that are associated with private or independent agreements.
However, it means Irish people will no longer be able to adopt children from several countries including Russia, Ethiopia, Vietnam, South Africa.
These rules will not apply to those parents who receive a declaration of suitability before November.
Minister for Children Barry Andrews said he was engaged in negotiations with Russia with a view to reaching a bilateral agreement on adoption, but that he could not do so with Ethiopia as his office did not have the resources to carry out more than one set of negotiations at a time.
He said negotiations with Vietnam had broken down in January but that Vietnam itself was making solid progress to signing up to the Hague Convention.
Mr Andrews said he received confirmation this week that Bulgaria wished to engage with Ireland with a view to negotiating a bilateral agreement, but that South Africa had indicated it did not wish to engage at this time.
Speaking at a conference in Dublin organised by the Irish branch of the International Adoption Association, Mr Andrews also said he would like to see the Health Service Executive diverting resources away from assessing parents for international adoptions, and focusing instead on child protection measures.
Mr Andrews said the new adoption legislation provided for the HSE to engage outside accreditation bodies to run the assessment programmes that would allow them to concentrate on other measures.
