The Adoption Authority of Ireland granted 20 adoption orders remotely via Zoom during Covid-19 restrictions, as it continued to provide its adoption services.
Chief Executive Patricia Carey said she is "proud of our achievement as a public service body" in serving all members of the adoption community and facilitating remote adoption hearings during the coronavirus restrictions.
She said families were delighted to know their children would not miss out on the opportunity to be adopted when the travel restrictions were in place.
The authority has published its annual report, which showed 79 domestic adoption orders were granted in 2019.
Most of these were to step-parent applicants.
Speaking on RTÉ's News at One, Ms Carey said changes in the law since 2017 were making this option more palatable for step-parents and many in longer term foster care were now coming forward to be adopted.
The authority had 48 declarations of eligibility and suitability for people who wanted to adopt abroad and she said that a high standard of inter-country adoptions is continuing, with a small number of countries where excellent relations have been established.
The programme includes Thailand, the Phillipines, Vietnam, China, the United States, and Haiti where full due diligence can be assured.
Ms Carey encouraged all older birth mothers or birth fathers to make contact with the register, as some want medical information or letters and phone calls, while others want to meet the children.
She said the authority is seeing a lot more sibling matches from the Register when both parties have come forward.
She added that studies show two-thirds of the 15,000 people on the Register are adoptees.
The authority also received a substantial number of files from the Cúnamh Adoption Agency (formerly the Catholic Protection and Rescue Society of Ireland), which will be protected and provide a service to the 6,000 people whose lives are recorded in them.
