IRELAND.COMFebruary 19, 2008
Adopted 'should retain' citizen rights
It was recommended today that foreign children adopted by Irish parents be entitled to become a citizen even if the family lives outside the State.
The Law Reform Commission's Report on Aspects of Intercountry Adoption Law stated non-national youngsters should have the same rights as any other child of Irish parents.
The report, to be unveiled by Attorney General Paul Gallagher SC was requested in November 2005 after the case of Tristan Dowse.
The little boy was returned to an orphanage in Indonesia when his adoptive parents decided the adoption was not working out. Last February the High Court ruled that the five-year-old's adoptive parents - Joe Dowse, from Co Wicklow, and his Azerbaijani wife, Lala, - had breached their constitutional duties when they returned the youngster.
The judge ruled that the couple must support Tristan, who was back living with his birth mother, until he was 18. The court also directed that Tristan should be removed from the Register of Foreign Adoptions that is maintained by the Adoption Board.
However, Tristan retained his Irish citizenship and rights of succession to the estates of his adoptive parents.
Under the Law Reform Commission Act 1975, former attorney general Rory Brady SC requested that a study be carried out on the status and rights, including citizenship rights, of a child resident outside the State who has been the subject of a foreign or intercountry adoption order made in favour of an Irish citizen or citizens living abroad.
Around 4,500 foreign or intercountry adoptions have been registered by the Adoption Board since 1991, with 10 per cent of those children living outside the State.
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