Vast regional variations in adoption waiting times

COUPLES desperate to adopt a child from abroad can wait from 10 months to four years to be assessed, depending on where they live.

Official Health Service Executive statistics seen by the Irish Examiner outline the staggering delays faced by people wishing to adopt a child from abroad and reveal huge regional variations in waiting times.

The HSE data shows a total of 939 applications which had yet to go on a preparation course last year – the first step before an assessment by a social worker.

* The HSE Eastern region cites a projected waiting time of two years to go on a preparation course and a further 18 months to complete an assessment and be given a declaration of eligibility and suitability.

* In the HSE Midlands, despite just 23 people awaiting a preparation course last year, the Laois/Offaly region also had a two-year waiting time, while Longford and Westmeath have an 11-month wait.

* The North-West region had only a two-month waiting list to go on a preparation course followed by eight months to complete an assessment and receive a declaration of suitability.

If a person is a member of the Protestant faith, they have the option to go through the assessment process with PACT, whose waiting times are among the shortest in the country.

According to the HSE data, social workers working on inter-country adoption managed to complete anaverage of just 13 assessments each last year. This is far below the official target of 18 to 24 assessments per social worker, as outlined in a HSE report in 2000.

However, the official HSE statistics do not tell the whole story. Prior to going on a preparation course, applicants must first attend an information meeting before they submit an application. Although these meetings are scheduled to take place every month, waiting times of more than a year have been reported, particularly in the Dublin region. These waiting times do not appear in the HSE statistics.

Added to this is the trauma of people who have received a declaration but remain in limbo due to a lapsed bilateral agreement with Vietnam and blacklisting by Russian authorities.

Chief executive of the International Adoption Association (IAA) Shane Downer described the waiting times as “appalling”.

“Everyone agrees that the system should be robust, but when you are getting nowhere for over three years something is wrong.”

The IAA is currently promoting a new assessment agency it hopes will be running by next January.

Concerning the regional variation in waiting times, the HSE said: “To address this imbalance, the HSE nationally has introduced a new system of application which will effectively reduce the waiting lists in Dublin, Kildare and Wicklow by over 35% in the next 12 months.”