Information for Birth Parents

You may be thinking about taking the first step towards contact with your son or daughter. We welcome any contact from birth parents seeking information on their adopted sons or daughters. Even if you are not ready for contact, you will have important medical information that we could share with your son or daughter. Many adopted people have no knowledge of their medical histories and this information can be of great benefit to an adopted person and their children.

There are two steps that you can take to begin the process

1. Join the National Adoption Contact Preference Register. The contact register is a way of letting us know your wishes about contact with your son or daughter. Joining the Contact Register is voluntary and contact will only happen where both the adopted person and their birth relative wish to have contact. The Contact Register is not a tracing service, nothing happens unless the other person joins.
   
   If you join the Contact Register we will check to see if we can connect you with your son or daughter.  You do not have to have contact if you are not ready.  At the moment there are lots more adopted people than birth parents on the Contact Register so we urge you to join if you are a birth parent.   If you are unsure of the details of your son or daughter's birth, please contact us so that we can talk to you.  We also understand you may have placed more than one child for adoption. Please get in touch so we can help you search or put information on the file. 
   
   More information about the National Adoption Contact Preference Register and application forms below.
   
   
2. Contact the agency who placed your son or daughter for adoption. To begin a search, you will need to contact the adoption agency which dealt with your child's adoption and ask them to assist you in tracing your child. If you know the name of the agency you can contact them directly. If you are unsure or don’t know you can ask us for this information. If you do not wish to get in touch with the agency, please talk to us so we can help you and talk about an alternative service. Many of the adoption agencies are closed and the records for the majority of them have been transferred to other bodies such as Tusla - The Child and Family Agency. You can check their website to see if they are holding the records for the agency you are looking for www.tusla.ie.
   
   If you are unsure or do not know the name of the agency please contact the Information and Tracing Unit, Adoption Authority, by email or letter and attach a copy of your identification, and we will write back to you with the name of the agency and their contact details.

Useful Links

Information for Birth Mothers - preparing for contact with your adult, adopted child - Danú Birth Mothers Group

Council of Irish Adoption Agencies – Information for birth parents

Information for other family members 
If you are not a birth parent but you believe a family member was adopted and you would like to provide information for them or would like to make contact with them, when you contact us you will need to provide your own identification and evidence of your connection with the person you are seeking.

Original Birth Certificate Requests

Under existing legislation, an adopted adult has no automatic access to their original birth certificate. This is because all birth certificates contain personal information about the birth mother and her right to confidentiality must be respected.

When the Adoption Authority receives your request for the release of your original birth certificate, we will acknowledge your request in writing. In the letter we will provide you with the contact details for the adoption agency that will be assisting us with your request.  Where the original adoption agency is closed we will give the contact details for the agency which now holds the files for the closed agency.  In most cases this will be one of the offices of Tusla - Child and Family Agency.

We will write to the adoption agency and ask them to provide us with a report which will assist us in making a decision about the release of your birth certificate. A social worker in the agency will be assigned to your case.  Their report to us will include the following:

• Details of their contact with you and your birth mother;
• Details of your birth mother’s views on the release of the birth certificate;
• Details of your hopes and expectations about getting your birth certificate and the information which may be on the certificate. This is of particular importance in cases where your birth mother may not be open to contact, or where she may be opposed to the release of identifying information;
• A recommendation from the social worker about the release or non-release of your birth certificate based on their findings during the process.

If your birth mother cannot be located the report must outline all the efforts that have been made to find her. If it is discovered that your birth mother is deceased, a copy of her death certificate must be provided with the report.

Generally, the Adoption Authority will release birth certificates where a birth mother has agreed in writing to the birth certificate being released, or where it has been confirmed that she is deceased and there are no other issues arising.

In all other cases your request and report from your social worker is referred to the Board of the Adoption Authority for a decision.

The Adoption Authority may refuse to release a birth certificate where a birth mother has been consulted and is opposed to the release of the birth certificate or where it considers a birth mother’s privacy or safety might be put at risk by the release of the birth certificate.

When a decision has been made by the Adoption Authority a letter will be sent to you and to the social worker who has provided the report.  If the birth certificate is being released the Adoption Authority will check with the social worker to see if you would like the birth certificate posted directly to you by the Adoption Authority, or if you would prefer to receive it from the social worker you have been dealing with.

Information for Adopted People

The National Adoption Contact Preference Register