David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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930. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs to explain the way her Department and the Health Service Executive define and classify post adoption trauma or incidences of post traumatic stress disorder as a result of adoption; the research, if any, carried out by her Department or bodies under the aegis of her Department into post adoption trauma; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [13758/14]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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Under adoption legislation, when a child is registered on the Register of Intercountry Adoptions the child is deemed to be the fully legal child of the adoptive parent/couple, having the same legal status as any biological child of the couple born to them within their marriage. Accordingly, it is open to any adopted child to access Child & Adolescent Mental Health Services operated by the Health Service Executive. The Executive advises that adoptive parents tend to seek assistance with issues relating to their adoptive child through their GP services who may then refer them.

The Child and Family Agency advises that there are a small number of adoptive parents who seek post adoptive support from the adoption assessment team in their area. The problems are generally attachment related behavioural issues. The Agency also funds a post adoption service operated by Barnardos in the Dublin area.

While no research on post adoption trauma has yet been carried out by the Child and Family Agency, the Children's Research Centre of Trinity College published the "Study on Intercountry Adoption Outcomes in Ireland" in 2007. This study, which was commissioned by the then Adoption Board, includes discussion of post-adoption experiences.