Over 3,000 call adoption board to register for tracing services
Added on May 3, 2005
Tuesday May 3rd 2005
MORE than 3,000 adopted people or their natural parents have contacted the Adoption Authority of Ireland seeking information about their background or to register for tracing services, it has emerged.
The registrar with the Adoption Board, Kiernan Gildea, said yesterday that the numbers who have called during a recent two-week period was the same as the total number of calls received last year.
The number seeking information comes on the back of a public information campaign surrounding the National Adoption Contact Preference Register, which will facilitate contact, if requested, between adopted people and their natural families.
Participation is voluntary and contact through the register can only be initiated where both parties register. The register allows people to choose the level of contact they wish, which can include a willingness to meet, exchange of emails or letters, the sharing of medical information or no contact at all.
An information campaign in local and national media, as well as a mail drop, is credited with the rise in numbers seeking information.
Adopted people and their natural parents, siblings or natural grandparents can contact the board for information. Adopted men are as likely as women to seek information about their natural parents.
There are 47,000 adopted people in Ireland. Mr Gildea told the Irish Independent that the 3,000 expressions of interest received by the board were split 50/50 between adopted people and natural parents, siblings or grandparents. The board sent 1,400 registration forms to these callers, however, he said it was "too early" to say what level of contact was preferred by callers.
"We got a year's inquiries in a period of just two weeks," he said. "We don't know yet as to what the preferred level of interest is. We're delighted with the response.
"A lot of people don't necessarily want to meet, people can just swap non-identifiable information."
Last year the Adoption Board received 60 applications from people seeking a copy of their birth cert. Due to a Supreme Court judgment, the board is restricted from issuing information to either adopted people, or their natural parents, without the others agreement.
Paul Melia
? Irish Independent