Almost 7,000 join adoption register

ALMOST 7,000 people have joined a national register established to facilitate contact between adopted people and their natural parents.

And almost 500 applicants involving 249 matches have made contact in the 2½ years since the establishment of the register.

A report by the Adoption Board has revealed that 6,270 people applied to join the National Adoption Contact Preference Register in the first two years since its establishment in April 2005.

Approximately 400 more have also applied to have their name listed on the register in the past six months.

Seven out of 10 applicants are adopted persons, with the vast majority of the remainder accounted for by natural mothers. Natural fathers represent 3.5% of the total and other relatives almost 6%.

All but 14% of applicants declared themselves willing to have some level of contact. However, most of those who said they did not want any contact also indicated that they would still like to be discreetly advised if a lost relative had also registered with the Adoption Board.

The majority of people who contacted the register among both natural parents and adoptees were female.

The chairman of the Adoption Board, Geoffrey Shannon, said the NACPR had provided natural fathers and other relatives of the adopted person a recognition that many felt they did not previously have.

However, the report also highlighted concerns that some applicants, particularly adopted persons in their teens or early 20s, were registering casually or impulsively without fully considering all the implications.

Mr Shannon, a well-known family law expert, said the number of applications for the contact register was fairly high by international standards, even though it is estimated that about 47,000 children have been adopted in the Republic since 1953.

The Adoption Board will begin a new public awareness campaign early next year to promote the register among target groups such as older natural mothers who had not yet registered.

Mr Shannon said the Adoption Board would also examine the issue of creating a register for foreign-born children who had been adopted by people living in Ireland.