Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have had discussions with the Child and Family Agency regarding the importance of this issue.

Clearly for the individuals concerned it is key that they get access to these records as quickly as possible. Heretofore, there has not been a national approach to adoption services and Gordon Jeyes, the chief executive officer of the agency, has advised me it is reorganising the adoption services in 2014 at a national level. It will consider how best to deploy staff to deal with this important issue in order to facilitate access to the records. Quite a number of social workers have been involved in assessment and while assessments for adoption still are taking place, the inter-country and international situation regarding adoption clearly has changed considerably. Consequently, it should be possible that social workers who previously were involved in assessment should now be able to move to help people more on the tracing side. However, there still is considerable demand for assessments and people are entitled under the law to have an assessment even though very few, relatively speaking, inter-country or national adoptions are taking place. There still is demand for assessments because people obviously are hopeful they may be able to adopt and, as Ireland reaches agreement with different countries, that the number of children available for inter-country adoption will increase. While the level of resources the Government can make available is an issue that must be considered, every effort will be made to respond to individual queries.

See this speech in context