Sixteen children adopted abroad by Irish residents last year

Sixteen children were recorded as being adopted abroad by Irish residents last year, half of whom were adopted from Vietnam, the Adoption Authority of Ireland’s (AAI) latest annual report says.

The number of overseas adoptions by Irish residents last year was the lowest number registered with the AAI in eight years, down from a high of 83 overseas adoptions registered in 2015.

Eight children were adopted from Vietnam, four were adopted from the United States, two from Thailand and one from Poland and Moldova.

A further 120 adoptions of children abroad were recognised by the authority however, in those cases children were adopted by people who lived outside of Ireland at the time.

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Legal permission to be eligible to adopt was granted to 121 Irish residents last year, an increase of 28 compared to 2020.

In 103 cases permission was granted to married couples, in six cases to couples living together, and in one instance to a couple in a civil partnership. In a further 11 cases the AAI granted eligibility for a single person to adopt a child.

The State authority received 111 applications to adopt children last year, while 101 adoption orders were granted.

In the majority of cases — 65 — adoptions were approved where the applicant was a step-parent of the child. In 24 cases foster carers adopted children who had been living with them for a long period.

There were just two cases of infants being placed for adoption from birth being adopted last year. The AAI annual report for 2021, published on Tuesday, said in five cases children were adopted by extended family members.

The authority received 134 requests from adopted people for access to their original birth certificates, 98 of which were referred to Tusla, the State child and family agency, as it held the relevant adoption records. Of the cases the AAI dealt with some 22 requests were approved, while in seven instances the applications were rejected due to a lack of consent from birth mothers.

From October adopted people will be able to apply for full access to their birth certificates and birth information, regardless of whether their birth family consents to the release of the information.

The new regime giving adopted people much greater access to information about their early life and family was brought in under the Information and Tracing Act, which was signed into law earlier this year.

The authority said it “warmly welcomed” the new law as a “thoughtful rebalancing of rights”, which would overhaul the current system of access to information for adopted people.