500 children adopted from overseas annually

Ireland has one of the highest per capita rates of foreign adoption in Europe with around 500 overseas children being adopted by Irish families every year, according to a report.

The two-year study by the Children's Research Centre in Trinity College - commissioned by the Adoption Board - found the rate of foreign adoption is now 10 times that of domestic adoption, which on average involves around 50 children a year.

The report said that since the legal framework was put in place for intercountry adoption by the Government in 1991, some 4,500 children have been adopted into Ireland from abroad.

For the report, researchers interviewed 180 children, aged between two and 17 who had been adopted from abroad.

They found that the children were, on average, 17 months old when adopted, 80 per cent had spent some time in institutional care and that they came from 15 different countries.

Given the conditions in which they had typically spent their earliest months or years, the study found that most children had made an "extraordinary recovery".

"Their intellectual level was comparable with that of Irish-born children, and most were functioning well emotionally and socially," it said.

Some 25-30 per cent were found to have ongoing problems, but the problems were very severe and disabling in only a small number of cases, the report noted.

It concluded that although most children adopted from abroad were doing well, there is still lack of support for the needs of these children - some of whom were still struggling with the consequences of early neglect and institutional care.

The director of the Children's Research Centre, Prof Sheila Greene, said: "Intercountry adoption provides a very striking example of the resilience of children despite early adversity."

"The outcomes of the study . . . will contribute to improving the quality of the inter-country adoption experience, especially post adoption," chairman of the Adoption Board Justice Jim O'Sullivan said.

The report was welcomed by the International Adoption Association which said it bore out its members experience that intercountry adoption was "a highly positive and important activity".

It also praised the report's recommendation for a speedy implementation of the Hague Convention on the Rights of the Child through the forthcoming adoption legislation.