Help for those adopted abroad to find parents

Children who were adopted from Romania and who have reached the age of 18 will be helped in finding information about their biological parents if they request it, a conference was told yesterday.

More than 600 children were adopted from Romania, mostly from orphanages, by Irish people following the fall of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu's regime in December 1989.

Many of those children are now reaching 18, at which stage they are entitled to find out about their natural parents.

The chairman of the Adoption Board, Geoffrey Shannon, told a conference at Dublin Castle on inter-country adoption that "every effort" would be made to assist children adopted from abroad who wanted to find out about their natural parents.

Mr Shannon said the board intended to undertake a consultation process with all interested parties to determine how best to address the needs of children regarding tracing their parents.

Mr Shannon said a study by the Children's Research Centre at Trinity College Dublin showed that inter-country adoptions into Ireland had been "unambiguously a positive experience" for most of the 4,500 children who have been adopted into Ireland since a legal framework was put in place for such adoptions by the Government in 1991.

The study found that between 25 per cent and 30 per cent of the children experienced some developmental difficulties. However, it also found that, in general, parents rated their children as having problems which were no different in intensity from that found in other studies of the general population.

Prof Femmie Juffer, a Dutch expert on inter-country adoptions, said Ireland's experience was similar to that elsewhere, where adopted children may start off with mild developmental delays but usually catch up as they grow up.

Minister for Children Michael Smith told the conference, which was organised by the Children's Research Centre and the Adoption Board, that the imminent ratification of the Hague Convention would add an "additional safeguard" to a receiving country such as Ireland.

The Government is expected to bring forward a new Adoption Bill in this Dáil term to give force to the Hague Convention, which covers adoption. Ireland signed the Hague Convention in 1993, but has yet to ratify it.