Minute from Brian Gallagher to Frederick H. Boland (Dublin)
(345/96)

Secretary,
On the 12th December last the Department of Health¹ asked us to ascertain whether it would be possible to arrange that foreign adoptive parents should be obliged to produce evidence of character, suitability and religion supported by a recommendation from the diplomatic representative in this country. To this query we have sent no reply because, in the meantime, the Archbishop has instructed all Catholic institutions in the Archdiocese of Dublin to close down on any more foreign adoptive cases pending a full investigation of the matter. I am not aware whether the Archbishop has yet arrived at any policy.

The Dublin Board of Assistance in its letter of the 29th August raises the same question once more by requesting that enquiries in regard to the suitability of adoptive parents in the United States should be made on their behalf by our Consuls. This is a request which, in my opinion, we cannot very well decline. Our Consuls in the United States are stationed there precisely for the purpose of performing services for the Irish authorities and for Irish citizens. To make enquiries of this kind at the request of the Dublin Board of Assistance would not, in my view, amount to actively fostering or encouraging emigration. The responsibility for sending the children out would be taken by the Dublin Board of Assistance and we would merely be in the position of assisting them by making enquiries through machinery in the United States which we possess and which they do not. Before replying along these lines, however, to the Dublin Board of Assistance, I think we should send to the Department of Health a copy of their letter and the terms of our proposed reply.

The Dublin Board of Assistance, however, has made a second enquiry, viz., whether they, and other similar authorities in Ireland, should, at the request of Children's Officers in Great Britain, make from the parents and guardians of children whom British residents wish to adopt, the enquiries necessitated by the British Adoption of Children Act 1926. The procedure under that Act does not, of course, afford the safe-guards for religion which Catholic opinion in this country would regard as necessary. The parents may, if they choose, stipulate that the children should be brought up in some particular religious persuasion but there is no obligation on them to do so and there might well be cases of unmarried Catholic mothers here who would be quite willing to see their children adopted by Protestants in Great Britain and brought up in the Protestant religion. It seems to me that the decision of this question is not one for the Department of External Affairs. The only political question involved is the fostering of emigration and I think that making enquiries on behalf of Children's Officers in Great Britain could not be represented as actively fostering emigration.

My recommendation is therefore that we should send a copy of the Dublin Board of Assistance's letter of the 29th August to the Department of Health referring to their enquiry of the 12th December last. We should say that the Minister for External Affairs is disposed to agree that any enquiries as to the suitability of proposed adoptive parents abroad which are required by Public Assistance authorities here should be made by this Department's diplomatic and consular officers abroad and that for this purpose the Public Assistance authority concerned in each case may communicate directly with the appropriate diplomatic or office. On the other hand, we should say that the Minister for External Affairs takes the view that the question whether Public Assistance authorities here should, on behalf of Children's Officers in Great Britain, make whatever enquiries are required in Ireland under the British Adoption of Children Act is not one for this Department and that we propose to tell the Dublin Board of Assistance so and suggest that they address their enquiry to the Department of Health.

A minute to the Department of Health on these lines is accordingly submitted.²