Official figures from Britain published this week showed that, out of 3,660 babies under the age of one in care in the UK last year, only 60, or less than two per cent, were placed with adoptive parents. 

This feature in The Daily Telegraph shows that this is a remarkable fall even from 2007, when 150 such children were adopted. In the mid 1970s, 4,000 children were adopted. 

Recent Irish figures tell a similar tale. According to a 2008 report by the Adoption Agency of Ireland, 200 adoption orders were made that year, out of 6,000 children (all minors under the age of 18) in care. But of the 200, only 67 were adopted outside the child’s family meaning very few adoptions of any kind take place here.

Some months ago, Fianna Fail tabled a Private Member’s Bill to make it easier to adopt the children of married couples. 

Having noted how few Irish children are adopted today, Browne said this was a good thing overall because “Irish parents are now caring for their children rather than placing them for adoption”, the “stigma attached to unwanted pregnancies” is a thing of the past, and even though there are still many crisis pregnancies, few of the resultant babies “end up being placed for adoption.”

He didn’t mention abortion, which is another reason for the low numbers of adoptions, nor did he mention the seeming existence among social workers of an anti-adoption ideology. (In practice, how many social workers ever recommend adoption to a mother who can’t cope with her child?)

On this score, Anne Marie Carrie, chief executive of children’s charity Barnardo’s UK, said that local authorities “do not cherish people when they come forward to be adoptive parents”.

Prospective adoptive parents are treated, she says, “with enormous suspicion and we set thresholds that would stop [birth parents] from adopting their own children”. In other words, the thresholds are set so high for would-be adoptive parents, even birth parents would not be able to hurdle them.

Here in Ireland, Mr Browne should have acknowledged that very few children are adopted in Ireland because it is extremely hard to adopt the children of ANY parents, whatever their marital status.

Suggesting that the difficulty in adopting children from married families is the major issue in the adoption debate is simply missing the point. The point is that adoption per se is very difficult and very rare even though thousands of children are in care and often spend their childhoods being looked after by one foster parent after another.

In Britain, white, middle-class couples who try to adopt in Britain are regarded with suspicion by some social workers. Some local authorities have refused to place children who have waited years for adoption with families from a different ethnic background, although new guidance sent out in April by the Government is aimed at ending this.

In the UK, though, the debate over adoption seems to be focused on overcoming real issues and obstacles. Here, our politicians seem determined to focus on side issues.