Some 3,800 people have applied for birth tracing information in the last year, according to the Adoption Authority of Ireland (AAI). 

This includes birth certificates, birth information, early life, care and medical information, requested through the Birth Information and Tracing Act 2022. 

According to AAI on the one-year anniversary of the implementation of the Act, 36 of these applications remain to be completed.  

Some 3,417 people registered their details on the Contact Preference Register (CPR) since July 2022, while 255 matches were completed. 

The CPR allows adopted people and those who gave up children for adoption, along with other separated families, to seek each other out.  

According to the AAI, 85% of those added to the register in the past year are adopted people. 

The AAI also received 400 birth tracing requests in the past year, 66% of which have now been assigned to a social worker and 10% of which resulted in contact with a relative. 

A previous AAI report found it received 2,570 applications for information for birth certificates, birth information and medical information between October and December alone.

'The right of adopted people'

AAI Chair Orlaith Traynor said she is “pleased” the Birth and Tracing Information Act has now processed the backlog of birth information applications. 

“The Authority can now respond to new applications within the timeframes specified in the Act,” she said. 

“The new legislation confirms the right of adopted people to information as to their identity and origin,” she said. 

“I am mindful of how important the timely receipt of this information is to adoptees, those boarded-out or nursed-out and those who were the subject of incorrect birth registrations.”