Almost 7,000 people have applied to join the National Adoption Contact Preference Register since it was set up 2½ years ago, according to a report to be launched today.
The report reveals that during its first year of operation an estimated 7,000 calls were made to the helpline and, two years later, it is still receiving between 20 and 30 calls a week.
The register, set up by the Adoption Board in March 2005, brings together the various ad hoc arrangements whereby adopted people and natural parents previously sought to contact each other through the adoption agencies.
Today's report, being launched by the Minister for Children, Brendan Smith, reviews the operation of the register so far.
It shows that from April 2005 to March 2007, 6,270 applications to join the register were received, and almost 400 more have come in over the last six months.
The majority - 71 per cent - of the applications were from adopted people, and the remainder from natural parents or other relatives. Of these, natural mothers accounted for over two-thirds (68 per cent), natural fathers for 12 per cent, and other relatives for 20 per cent.
The figures show that adopted people tend to seek information about their natural parents about the time they form families of their own.
Thirty-nine per cent of adopted applicants were in the 31-40 age group, with 24 per cent aged between 21 and 30, and 22 per cent between 41 and 50. More female (60 per cent) than male adopted people sought contact with their natural families.
Matches between adopted people and their natural families were made in 249 cases, affecting just under 500 people. The bulk of these were with mothers in the 41-50 age group.
A national media campaign, explaining about the register, was launched after it was set up. The Adoption Board then circulated literature on how to apply to households throughout the State via An Post.
A free phone helpline was set up. The register became fully operational in July 2005.
In the next phase of its work the register will be advertising in the UK, Canada and the US, where a large number of Irish children were adopted, and where some natural parents are also likely to live.
According to Mr John Collins, chief executive of the Adoption Board, older mothers still tend not to join the register. The number of birth mothers who joined the register was smaller than the number who made initial inquiries.
When a person seeks to join the register, the application is acknowledged and checked with the original adoption agency to ensure its accuracy. The data is then entered on to a database and checked for a match. If none is found it remains on the database and is constantly checked as new data comes in. When a match is found the person is contacted by phone and told, and offered counselling and mediation if they wish to pursue the contact further.
The person is in control of the kind of contact they want, according to Mr Collins. Sometimes it can just be information on their background, and whether there is any medical information that might be useful to them.
The needs of the applicants vary, with children generally wanting information on their background, and natural parents wanting to know their children are safe and well.
There were about 43,000 people adopted in Ireland since the 1950s, so those on the register still represent a minority.