Foreign Children With An Irish Parent Entitled To Citizenship

The 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 launched by the 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 Report notes that, once an adoption is recognised in Ireland and at least one of the adopter's is an Irish citizen, the adopted child is entitled to become an Irish citizen even where the family lives outside the State.

This is what happened in the Dowse case. The Report noted that this approach is accepted by a growing number of countries because it treats adopted children and children born to their parents equally.

The Commission recommended that the law should remain as it is, particularly in view of the importance which the Irish diaspora attach to Irish citizenship.

In its Report, the Commission recommended that children such as Tristan Dowse should be treated comparably in terms of their rights as any other child of Irish parents.

The Report noted that the State's duties to all children are limited under the Constitution to the extent that this is "practicable".

In cases where children are adopted abroad, this is especially relevant because the State cannot reasonably be expected to investigate the parenting skills of Irish citizens who live abroad, and there are significant practical difficulties in ensuring the legal and constitutional rights of an Irish citizen child resident outside the State are enforced.

The Commission also recommended that, in cases such as Dowse which come to the attention of the State in the future, the Attorney General, in his role as guardian of the public interest, and in conjunction with the diplomatic and consular services of the Government, is the most appropriate officer of the State to protect the rights of a vulnerable child subject to relevant principles of international law.