An agreement to allow Irish couples to adopt children from the Philippines will be signed tomorrow.
The Minister of State with responsibility for children, Ms Mary Hanafin, is in the Philippines for the signing.
Ms Hanafin said she was impressed with what she had seen of the adoption process in the Philippines.
"Inter-country adoption in the Philippines is only allowed after all efforts have been made at both local and national level to find the child a home with a Filipino couple," she said.
But the announcement was criticised by Mrs Nora Owen of Fine Gael, who said the Minister of State was giving false hope to prospective adopters because it took up to two years to be assessed in the eastern region.
Ms Hanafin said the agreement would facilitate Irish couples who wished to adopt children from the Philippines.
All contact would be made through the Irish Adoption Board, which would enable the Philippine authorities to process applications quickly.
Similar arrangements already exist with China, Thailand and Belarus.
But Mrs Owen said the Minister should concentrate on rectifying the "inordinate delays and the huge pressures" under which staff of the Eastern Regional Health Authority worked and should seriously consider allowing social workers from other regions to assist with assessment in the ERHA.