Some couples in Dublin, Kildare and Wicklow have been waiting to be cleared for foreign adoptions since 1996, the Eastern Health Board has confirmed.
The board was commenting on a claim by the International Adoption Association (formerly the Irish Foreign Adoption Group) that couples whose assessments began in March of this year had been waiting since October 1996 for the assessments to begin. In some cases, the assessments are not yet complete, the association said.
"It is correct to state that some prospective adopters could have been on a waiting list for an assessment from October 1996 to March 1998," the EHB said in a statement. "However, this would not have been the norm."
"Since then an additional three social workers have been appointed to carry out adoption assessments and the current waiting time for assessment is about 10 months."
"Normally an adoption assessment takes between six and nine months," it said. "It is only if particular issues arise - medical or otherwise - that an assessment would take longer than this."
The EHB said that among the main factors holding up the completion of assessments are delays by applicants in returning the necessary paperwork. "There are currently 60 applications on hold for this reason."
One couple who have undergone an assessment told The Irish Times it was unfair to blame prospective adopters for delays in returning the forms. Applicants, they said, "are asked to reflect very carefully before answering". Requirements such as getting Garda clearance certificates can also substantially delay the return of forms, they said.
The International Adoption Association also complained that it can take a month for the final report on the assessment to be written by the social worker doing it and that after it is written it can take a month to get it typed. The association claimed that it had been known to take four months to get a report typed.
Responding to these allegation, the EHB said: "It could take a month between the completion of the assessment and the issuing of the report, if the social worker concerned had a very heavy assessment workload. However, it would not be normal to have a month's delay.
"There were staffing problems this year which could have led to delays in getting reports typed. These have now been rectified and there are four secretarial staff providing full-time services for the nine member social work team carrying out the assessments."
The EHB added that "we fear it may be difficult to continue recruiting social workers for adoption assessments as a result of the ongoing public controversy over these procedures".
The International Adoption Association claimed this was an attempt to intimidate couples into not complaining about the EHB's adoption procedures.