Couples in the south-east seeking to adopt a foreign child are waiting 2 1/2 years to be assessed by social workers, new figures show.
Nationally, more than 1,000 couples are waiting for assessments, according to the Minister of State for Children, Ms Mary Hanafin. Efforts to reduce the waiting lists have been hampered by difficulties in recruiting social workers.
The South Eastern Health Board has the longest waiting list in the State, according to figures supplied to Fine Gael TD Ms Nora Owen by the minister of state. The region covers Carlow, Kilkenny, Tipperary South, Waterford and Wexford.
The next-longest waiting list is in the Mid-Western Health Board area (Clare, Limerick, Tipperary North) at 28 months; followed by the Eastern Regional Health Authority area (Dublin, Kildare, Wicklow), 22 months; Cork (Southern Health Board area), 18 months; the North Eastern Health Board area (Cavan, Louth, Meath, Monaghan), 13 months; the North Western Health Board area (Donegal, Leitrim, Sligo), 11-12 months; Kerry (Southern Health Board area), 11 months; the Midlands Health Board area (Laois, Longford, Offaly, Westmeath), 10 months; and the Western Health Board area (Galway, Mayo, Roscommon), four to six months.
Couples who want to adopt a second child have to be assessed again and the waiting lists for this ranges from two to three months in the North Eastern Health Board to 19 months in the Eastern Regional Health Authority.
Asked why a second assessment was needed, Ms Hanafin said the initial assessment was based on the capacity to parent one child.
Ms Hanafin said that difficulties in recruiting social workers had meant the extra £500,000 allocated to health boards for foreign adoption assessments last year and this year had not had its full effect.
This was part of the wider problem of finding sufficient childcare staff, but was exacerbated by the negative publicity around the way the Eastern Health Board handled foreign adoption assessments.
At the end of March, there were 1,036 applications awaiting assessment, including second-time applications.