Thinking About Adoption

Adoption provides a wonderful opportunity for a child to experience the unconditional love and care provided by a parent or parents who welcome them into their home. Parenting an adopted child requires the same skills as parenting a child born to you. In addition, you will need to develop a further set of skills to enable you to facilitate the child to understand their past and to deal with the losses in their lives. Some of the children from abroad may have spent a number of years in institutional care and may have difficulties forming relationships and attachments. This can be both rewarding and, at times, very challenging.

Pact has a long history and experience of adoption work. We are a national service and employ a panel of Assessing Social Workers to undertake assessments/home study reports who are regionally based and are able to visit applicants in their own localities. All of Pact’s Social Workers are accredited by CORU, www.coru.ie, the statutory body with responsibility for the registration of health and social care professionals, and are very experienced in the field of adoption and child welfare.

With the implementation of the Adoption Act in 2010 Ireland’s adoption standards were brought into line with the Hague Convention. The Convention recognises that adoption gives a child, permanency, care, love, and the structure of family life where they would otherwise live in institutional or state foster care. It also sets out the best practice which countries should meet when considering adoption for their children.

Domestic Adoption

While times have changed and adoption placements with non relative families are much less common than in the past, there is still a need for domestic adoption. In 2024, the Adoption Authority of Ireland (AAI) recorded a total of 131 adoption orders. However, only five of these involved infants being placed for adoption from birth. The remaining orders related primarily to step-parent adoptions, adoptions from foster care, and a small number of adoptions by extended family members.

Cases are often of a highly complex nature. Birth mothers come from a wide range of backgrounds including other cultures and ethnicities. They may have medical difficulties, such as intellectual disabilities, mental ill health, or long term illnesses, a history of substance abuse, or family difficulties and the pregnancies may often have been concealed. Extended families may also be involved.

Intercountry Adoption

Inter-country adoption offers couples and, in particular circumstances, individuals the opportunity to parent a child from another country when they do not have any chance of experiencing a loving and caring home in their country of origin.

In 2024, the Adoption Authority of Ireland (AAI) granted 30 Declarations of Eligibility and Suitability in 2024 to applicants seeking to adopt abroad and recorded 17 intercountry adoptions entered into the Register of Intercountry Adoption.

Currently, children available for intercountry adoption are typically older children or children with additional needs. Many may have spent time in institutional care and may have experienced multiple placements or caregivers throughout their lives. As a result, some children may face challenges in forming secure attachments and relationships. They may also have experienced neglect, malnutrition, or other adverse early life experiences, and may present with a range of medical needs, some of which are treatable, while others may involve more significant intellectual or physical disabilities.

Older children are also likely to have developed a vocabulary in their native language. For this reason, it is important that prospective adopters have an appreciation and understanding of the language and culture of the child’s country of origin, to help support communication and ease the child’s transition into their new family.

Advice on Adoption

Applicants are advised to refer to the Adoption Authority Ireland (AAI) website, www.aai.gov.ie. They give the latest information on the countries who have signed up to the Hague Convention and where agreement has been reached that children from these countries can be adopted by prospective adopters living in Ireland. Details are also available regarding the age and possible backgrounds of the children available for adoption. The matching of children and families is facilitated by a mediation agency or the Adoption Authority.

You need to be aware that mediation agencies charge a fee to facilitate an adoption. These fees may vary depending on your country of choice and it is important that you have considered how you will fund these expenses.