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	Frances Fitzgerald, Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, has welcomed the conclusion of inter-country adoption operating arrangements between Ireland and the United States of America.</p>
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	Intercountry adoption is the process by which a person adopts a child from a country other than their own through permanent legal means, and brings that child to the country of residence to live with them permanently.</p>
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	Intercountry adoption differs from domestic adoption because of the laws that make it possible to bring the child to live where the adopted parents live.</p>
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	To bring a child into America, the adopted child must have the same status and relationship to the adoptive parents as a child by birth. What some countries call &ldquo;adoptions&rdquo; are more accurately described as guardianships under U.S. law and are not considered adoptions for U.S. immigration purposes.</p>
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	<strong style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent;">Hague Convention</strong></p>
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	The Hague Adoption Convention on the Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Inter-Country Adoption (Hague Adoption Convention) is an international agreement to safeguard intercountry adoptions.</p>
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	Concluded on May 29, 1993 in The Hague, the Netherlands, the Convention establishes &lsquo;international standards of practices for intercountry adoptions&rsquo;.</p>
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	The United States signed the Convention in 1994, and the Convention entered into force for the United States in April 2008.</p>
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	Ireland ratified the Covention by the enactment of the Adoption Act 2010 on 1 November 2010.</p>
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	The Convention recognises intercountry adoption as a means of offering the advantage of a permanent home to a child when a suitable family has not been found in the child&rsquo;s country of origin.</p>
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	It enables intercountry adoption to take place when:</p>
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	<em style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent;">1.The child has been deemed eligible for adoption by the child&rsquo;s country of birth; and<br style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;" />
	2.Proper effort has been given to the child&rsquo;s adoption in its country of origin.</em></p>
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	<strong style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent;">Ireland</strong></p>
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	The Adoption Authority of Ireland said they have been working in recent months to bring &lsquo;greater clarity&rsquo; to the situation regarding the adoption of children from the United States.</p>
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	The formalities surrounding the operating arrangements were concluded at a meeting in the US Department of State in Washington&nbsp;on Tuesday&nbsp;3rd September.</p>
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	Minister Fitzgerald, the Adoption Authority of Ireland Chairman Dr. Geoffrey Shannon, and the new Irish Ambassador to the United States Ms Anne Anderson, all attended the meeting, which&nbsp;followed the exchange of a diplomatic note between the two countries.</p>
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	Minister Frances Fitzgerald said that inter-country adoption has undergone a period of significant transition following the Hague Convention with the situation for families seeking to adopt having changed dramatically.</p>
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	The Minister welcomed the arrangements concluded&nbsp;on Tuesday&nbsp;as an &lsquo;important step in ensuring that inter-country adoptions can take place effectively between Ireland and the US&rsquo;.</p>
<blockquote style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; quotes: none; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
	<p style="padding: 0px; margin: 10px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">
		<em style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent;"><strong style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent;">&ldquo;The&nbsp;US Department of State has shown a significant level of commitment to the process of developing new operating arrangement between Ireland and the United States, demonstrated also by the degree of goodwill they have shown to my officials and I.&rdquo;</strong></em></p>
	<p style="padding: 0px; margin: 10px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">
		<strong style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent;">-Minister Fitzgerald</strong></p>
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	The arrangements set out in detail how inter-country adoption will operate between the Adoption Authority of Ireland and the Department of State.</p>
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	Dr. Shannon stated that the arrangement is a &lsquo;significant development in that it embodies a consensus on the rules applying to child adoption between the two countries&rsquo;.&nbsp;It is the second agreement entered into by the Authority with another Hague country, following agreement being reached with Vietnam earlier this year.</p>
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	The arrangement with the US focuses on the issue of consent but also covers other issues such as the level of costs, observance of the principle of &ldquo;subsidiarity&rdquo;, birth father notification and the &ldquo;matching&rdquo; process which applies in the US.</p>
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	This arrangement will provide a &lsquo;clear road map as to how the inter-country adoption process will operate between Ireland and the US&rsquo;.</p>
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	<a href="http://insideireland.ie/2013/09/04/minister-for-children-and-youth-affairs-welcomes-conclusion-of-inter-country-adoption-operating-arrangements-between-ireland-the-usa-101632/">http://insideireland.ie/2013/09/04/minister-for-children-and-youth-affairs-welcomes-conclusion-of-inter-country-adoption-operating-arrangements-between-ireland-the-usa-101632/</a></p>
