How to Get Your Birth Certificate and Adoption Records

On 3rd October 2022 a new system opened for certain affected individuals to apply for information under the Birth (Information and Tracing) Act 2022. We strongly recommend that you apply for information both via the legislation and under the General Data Protection Regulation. The Clann Project, Adoption Rights Alliance and Article Eight Advocacy have made the following resources available:

  • Clann Project/Article Eight Advocacy Interim Guide on the Birth Information and Tracing system.
    • (Please note, parts of the guide may be out of date as there have been minor changes to the operation of the system. Please see our FAQ page for updates).
  • Adopted/boarded out people can learn how to apply under the GDPR using the Adoption Rights Alliance Information Guide.
    • Please note that the Information Guide has not yet been updated to reflect the changes under the new system.
  • FAQ page on the Birth Information and Tracing system.
  • Mothers who wish to apply for information can do so under the GDPR using this template*

*Unfortunately the legislation is only open to adopted people (including illegally adopted people), boarded out people, mothers or relatives of children who died in certain institutions, or the next of kin of an adopted person who has died.

We also encourage adopted people, mothers and relatives to register with the new Contact Preference Register (CPR), which is run by the Adoption Authority of Ireland.