Tusla has refused repeated requests from the Adoption Authority of Ireland (AAI) for access to certain adoption records it holds.

Finally there will be a sample audit of all records held by the State, writes Conall Ó Fátharta.

The Adoption Authority of Ireland (AAI) has said it was “not aware” that a formerly accredited adoption agency owned an unmarked grave in which children were buried as late as 1990.

Tusla, the child and family agency, is telling adopted people who need a search to be undertaken for relatives in Britain that they will have to pay for the service.

Tomorrow will bring a major change to Ireland's adoption laws.

The Government excluded an adoption agency from the mother-and-baby home inquiry despite being told almost two years ago that it had knowledge of “several hundred” illegal birth registrations.

Calls for an audit of all the files held by accredited adoption agencies and by the State, so that the full scale of illegal adoptions and birth registrations can be uncovered, have always fallen on deaf ears, writes Conall Ó Fátharta

The head of the Adoption Authority is insisting there is no upper age limit for those who want to adopt in Ireland.

LOCAL jockey Gavin Sheehan led from pillar to post on the local owned and trained That Fellow in the Irish Examiner sponsored Ballabuidhe Derby before a huge crowd on the opening day of the sun-soaked Ballabuidhe Festival in Dunmanway yesterday.