Couples hoping to adopt from abroad can wait up to four years for an assessment in some health board areas, according to the chairman of the International Adoption Association.
Mr Francis McGeough also called for a licensing system for international agencies which offered to arrange foreign adoptions.
Mr McGeough said there had been a "huge" improvement in the attitude of Eastern Health Board social workers towards foreign adoption in the past year. However, when a family had to wait two or three years for an assessment to begin the relationship started on a very bad footing.
He said the association would favour licensing agencies other than health boards to carry out assessments. Such a move would speed up the process.
He favoured contributing towards the cost of assessments from these agencies. "We appreciate that there are a lot of demands on the health system. The only way we are going to have assessments done in a reasonable timeframe would be for people to pay for them."
The association believed a fee of up to £2,000 would be reasonable if it eliminated long waiting lists.
He said when couples had been cleared to adopt they often went to international agencies to arrange the adoption. His association believed any such agency should have an office in the State and to be licensed by the Department of Health and Children.
It should also have to obtain approval from the country from where a child would be adopted as well as approval from the agency's country of origin, usually the US.
"Unfortunately there are some shady people out there" and such an arrangement would protect couples from them. An example of shady practice was introducing extra charges after a couple arrived in a foreign country even though they had already paid substantial fees.