There was a surge of applications to the Adoption Authority of Ireland in 2023 - the first full year that the Birth Information and Tracing Act (BITA) was operational.
The Act was established to give adopted people, people who were boarded out, or born in a mother-and-baby home or County Home Institution, or people who had their births illegally registered, the right to receive their birth certificate; information about their birth, early life and care and information relating to medical history.
In 2023, there were 1,641 applications from people for the release of their information but almost twice that number (3,504) was processed, due to a backlog from 2022.
82% of applications for information were from Ireland, 10% from UK and the remainder from rest of the world.
In Ireland, the largest number of requests for information came from Co Dublin (486), followed by Cork (180), Kildare (87) and Wicklow (68). The largest number of applications outside of Ireland and the UK came from the US, followed by Australia and Canada.
The AAI's Social Work Service received 410 referrals for tracing and 326 cases were allocated.
The majority of referrals received in 2023 (318) related to adopted people seeking to trace a birth parent, with two birth parents seeking to trace their children. Sixty-six applications were a person seeking to trace their sibling. Twenty-four people applied to trace other relatives (grandparents etc.)
The Contact Preference Register (CPR) which enables people to state their preferences in relation to contact with family, including a request for privacy, was also set up under the BITA Act.
In 2023, there were 313 applications from adoptees, 27 applications from parents and 105 applications from other relatives to the CPR. The report notes that a portion of these represented updates to existing entries such as a change of contact details and the updating of contact preferences.
There were 111 referrals relating to CPR matches last year. Forty-eight of them related to matches between a birth parent and an adopted person. Fifty-one related to matches between siblings and the remainder (12) related to matches between other relatives.
The report says some people contacted the AAI Social Work Service last year with queries outside its statutory functions. An example cited is clients seeking guidance on how to manage an approach from a relative, but the report says a particular social worker "provides support to these individuals".
The report also notes the number of domestic and intercountry adoptions that were granted last year.
In 2023, 90 Domestic Adoption Orders were granted, the majority of which were step-parent adoptions, totalling 47. The number of adoption orders made for children who had been in long-term foster care in 2023 was 30.
The remainder consisted of eight infants placed from birth for the purpose of adoption, and five cases of children living with extended family members.
209 entries were made in the Register of Intercountry Adoptions on foot of applications for recognition of adoptions. Of this number, 184 were for recognition of adoptions effected outside of Ireland by adopters who were habitually resident outside the State.
Twenty-five entries were in respect of intercountry adoptions of children into Ireland by adopters habitually resident in the State. The majority of children came from Vietnam, followed by the USA and Thailand and India.
