Five-year wait to adopt abroad

COUPLES eager to adopt foreign children are facing delays of five years, because of a bottleneck in waiting lists.

John Collins blamed the long delays on the lack of social workers who assess couples.

“We’re not happy with it. It’s a long time,” said the board’s chief executive.

A review of adoption assessments is now under way, which it is hoped will help speed up the process.

New research, the first of its kind, on foreign adoptions, was launched yesterday revealing difficulties couples and adopted children face.

Up to 180 adopted children were interviewed about family issues, their country of birth, their understanding of adoption and their own identity.

The study, by the Children’s Research Centre at Trinity College Dublin, found the first meeting for parents with a child was joyful but often tinged with worries. Only 44% of parents described a child as “healthy” at an initial meeting. Parents also said their most helpful source of information prior to and after an adoption, was from other adoptive parents.

Figures show since 1991, when inter-country adoptions were legalised, some 4,500 children have been adopted from abroad.

Ireland has one of the highest rates of foreign adoption in Europe, at 500 a year.

According to the study, many children are found to have challenges, including eating, sleeping and language difficulties. Up to a third of children observed had behavioural difficulties.

Children questioned were on average seven years old and came from 15 countries, including Russia, Romania, China and Vietnam.

Mothers and fathers, as well as teachers of adopted children, were questioned.

The International Adoption Association welcomed the new research yesterday saying the study bore out its members’ experience showing foreign adoption was “a highly positive and important activity, which provides loving families for children.”