The State is to set up its first national register to assist contact between people who were adopted and their birth families.
Under the National Adoption Contact Preference Register, presented yesterday by Minister of State at the Department of Health Brian Lenihan, adopted people and their birth parents will be able to set out the level of contact, if any, they wish to make with the other party.
All 1.3 million households in the State will shortly receive an information leaflet about the service and an application form to join the register.
The Department of Health and the Adoption Board, which will operate the register, hopes many of the 47,000 adopted people in Ireland and tens of thousands of birth parents will agree to provide at least some information, particularly on family medical history.
Mr Lenihan said participation in the register would be voluntary and that the service would be confidential.
"Contact through the register will only be initiated where both parties register for contact. Adopted people, natural parents and any natural relative of an adopted person can apply to join.
"When a match is made the two parties will be individually contacted confidentially by the Adoption Board. How they wish to proceed will then be discussed by them," Mr Lenihan said.
Register applicants will be asked to choose from preferences that include: a willingness to meet the other party, a willingness to exchange letters or make contact via telephone or e-mail with the other party, a reluctance to make contact but willingness to share medical information or personal information, or a preference for no contact.
Mr Lenihan said that in the past adoption had been a secretive process and represented a final break in the relationship between the adopted person and the family of origin. But adoption was now recognised as a lifelong experience, he said.
Adoption Board chief executive John Collins said that between 1998 and 2004 there had been a 50 per cent rise in inquiries about children given up for adoption or about birth parents. There were 2,000 inquiries last year.
He said most inquiries came from adopted people who tended to be in their 30s and had just started their own families.
Mr Collins said that often adopted people wanted information on family medical history because existing medical files were frequently "scant".
He said the Adoption Board hoped that birth parents who did not want to make contact with children might provide some medical or social information.
Mr Collins added that birth parents trying to contact adopted children were often in their 50s or 60s whose families were reared. He said that while the register, which starts in early May, would be the first port of call for people seeking details of their birth families, they would not have to wait for a match, and could still use the information and tracing services already offered by the Adoption Board.
