Pact was originally established in 1952 as the Protestant Adoption Society to provide a domestic adoption service to the Protestant community. In 1978 our work was extended to include a non-denominational counselling service for unmarried pregnant women and in 1985 the adoption and counselling services were incorporated under the name ‘Pact’. In 1997, continuing our tradition of responding to need, we established our inter-country adoption service.

Following the 2010 Adoption Act, Pact now provides an adoption assessment service as allocated by Tusla.  We are an accredited adoption agency under Section 4 (e,f, & g) of the Adoption Act, 2010. We are a national service and employ a panel of ad hoc social workers to undertake assessment work who are regionally based and are able to visit applicants in their own localities. All of Pact’s social workers are accredited by CORU, www.coru.ie, the statutory body with responsibility for the registration of health and social care professionals, and are very experienced in the field of adoption and child welfare.

We accept referrals from applicants of any religious background and, while we are no longer denominational, we are proud to retain our ethos and heritage.

Pact now provides the following services:

• We undertake assessments/home study reports to determine eligibility and suitability for both domestic and inter-country adoption.
• We provide information, advice and counselling concerning adoption to any prospective adoptive parents.
• We complete post placement reports that are requested by the child’s country of origin.
• We offer a post placement support service for adopters bringing children back to Ireland. We hope to further develop the service as early intervention is crucial in preventing long term difficulties for some of the older children adopted from abroad.
• We provide a domestic advice and support service for adopters for whom Pact arranged adoptions in the past. As the first adoption agency in Ireland to establish open adoption we continue to provide support to children, adopters and birth parents who keep in contact after an adoption order has been granted up until the child reaches adulthood.
• We offer a short term pre-adoption foster care service for birth mothers living in Ireland who are considering adoption as an option for their babies.