New birth tracing law has had 'seismic' impact, says Adoption Authority

A mother and daughter, having made contact via Ireland’s contact preference register in 2022, enjoyed a “really positive experience”, and could now continue to communicate “as and how they wished”. File picture: iStock

Applications from people seeking to contact their birth parents increased almost fourfold in 2022 after Ireland’s birth tracing legislation finally went live, the adoption authority has said.

Some 6,250 people had applied for access to their birth files by February of this year, more than two thirds of whom did so within two weeks of the new legislation taking effect on October 3.