There are 554 people on the waiting list, including people trying to trace their birth relatives, and those who lived in mother and baby homes.
The waiting times for general applications are 30 months in the south west, and 2 years and 9 months in Dublin north-east.
Tusla says it will cut the lists by 10% for the next three years, but Suzanne Connolly, from Barnardos, says that's not enough.
"While they might consider 10% an ambitious target, that isn't ambitious enough for people who are waiting on the waiting list.
"I think what needs to happen is if Tusla need extra resources to reduced that waiting list, that's what needs to happen.
"We need to recognise how stressful it is for people who have made that step who have contracted the service, and then to be told they're one of many people on a long waiting list is really soul destroying."
