Michael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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Question 46: To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the number of adoptions registered with the Adoption Authority of Ireland since its establishment to adopters who were issued with their declarations of eligibility and suitability; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [33380/12]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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In 2011 a total of 188 adoptions were entered into in the Register of Intercountry Adoptions of which 21 were from countries who have ratified the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-Operation in respect of Intercountry Adoption and 167 were from non-Hague countries. To date in the current year 69 adoptions were entered into the Register of Intercountry Adoptions of which 14 were from countries who have ratified Hague and 55 were from non-Hague countries.

The Adoption Authority of Ireland maintain statistics for the number of declarations of eligibility and suitability issued and for the number of adoptions entered in the Register of Intercountry Adoptions. These figures do not require correlation as the processes for completing adoptions can span several years due to various external factors such as considerable variation in the waiting times between the sending of an application pack and the actual completion of an adoption in sending countries, which can be as much as 3 years or more in some cases.

Accordingly, register entries can have been made by the AAI on foot of declarations of eligibility and suitability issued by its predecessor, The Adoption Board.