Michael Moynihan
Question:6. Deputy Michael Moynihan asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs when the adoption (tracing and information) Bill will be introduced; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [21860/13]
Other Questions
Adoption Records Protection
Robert Troy
Question:17. Deputy Robert Troy asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs when the adoption (tracing and information) Bill will be brought forward; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [21824/13]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 6 and 17 together.
These questions continue the discussion on adoption tracing and information. Work is continuing on the preparation of the heads of Bill of the adoption (information and tracing) Bill. My view is that persons affected by adoption or involved in the adoption process should be provided with a statutory right to as much information as possible within permissible constitutional boundaries. The constitutional and legal context within which the development of legislative proposals must be undertaken is complex. This has influenced the existing approach to access to information, which, while subject to significant development in recent years, has up to now operated on the basis of the consent of all the parties. The proposed legislation is intended to provide for a structured and regulated approach for applicants seeking access to adoption information and is also intended to facilitate contact between parties affected by adoption, including in circumstances where an adoption order was not effected.
It is intended that the Bill will provide for the Adoption Authority to be responsible for providing access to adoption records, in accordance with the provisions of the Bill. A national index of adoption records will be established and this will make it more straightforward for people who want information. It will provide a clearer and more developed process than exists currently. We will ensure that an appropriate authority, the Adoption Authority, the HSE or an accredited body can hold adoption records. However, the Adoption Authority will have overall charge of the records and will be responsible for ensuring standards are met.
The national contact preference register will be established on a statutory basis. A national tracing service will also be established under the provisions of the Bill. The operation of that service will be subject to guidelines to be set out in regulations. It is intended that the tracing service will be made available to an adopted person, a birth parent and a relative of either an adopted person or a birth parent, and that the Adoption Authority will have overall responsibility for providing the tracing service.
It is also intended that, prior to the release of the adoption information, counselling will be offered by the Adoption Authority of Ireland, the HSE or an accredited body to an adopted person, a birth parent or an adoptive parent.
As I have already said, we are currently working on the criteria for balancing the adopted person's right to information about his or her identity with the birth parent's right to privacy. This issue is clearly at the core of the matter. Some views have already been expressed here about what that balance should be. It is clear that I have to get ongoing legal advice. These questions require careful examination because constitutional issues are involved.
I want to bring the heads of the Bill before the Government at the earliest possible date. My view is that people affected by adoption should be given a statutory right to as much information as possible. As I have said, that can only be done within the constitutional boundaries that operate at present. There are challenges in developing a workable framework which respects the constitutional rights of all parties. Notwithstanding those challenges, I remain committed to achieving the policy objectives I have outlined. That is precisely what is being worked on at present.
I thank the Minister for her reply. She said 12 months ago that she would bring the legislation before the Houses of the Oireachtas in 2012. Unfortunately, she has been unable today to give a definite timescale for when it will come before the House. She said she is working on it and that she hopes to bring the heads of the Bill before the Government some time this year. According to the legislative programme that has been published by the Whip's office, it will not be published in this session. We are looking at the autumn session at the very earliest.
I am sure the Minister will agree and acknowledge that to know one's own identity is a fundamental and basic human right. Susan Lohan of the Adoption Rights Alliance has said she feels the alliance is being stonewalled by the Minister and by the Adoption Authority of Ireland. The Minister has spoken about complexities. Maybe she will give us some insight into them. When her Cabinet colleague, the Minister, Deputy Shatter, was on the Opposition benches, he said:
I want to nail the suggestion that this is a hugely complex issue. It is an issue that has been properly and adequately addressed in a variety of other countries with the degree of insight and sensitivity necessary to ensure that birth mothers can make contact with adopted children where adopted children wish for such contact and to ensure that adopted children can trace their birth mothers and, indeed, their natural fathers where the information is available and where the natural parents wish for such contact. I urge the Minister to proceed hastily with bringing the necessary legislation before the House.
Regardless of what any of us might think about the Minister, Deputy Shatter, in his current role, no one can dispute that he is highly qualified and competent in the areas of constitutional law and family law. In light of what he said from the Opposition benches, I would like to know why this critical legislation, which is awaited by 50,000 children, is being delayed now that his party is in government.
There is absolutely no question of stonewalling in this regard. I recognise the importance of this legislation for the many people who are seeking access to more information. As the Deputy knows, many people have found a variety of ways of accessing information themselves. That does not make it less important for us to put the right statutory framework in place. That is what I am trying to do in the information and tracing Bill.
I have met Susan Lohan and others. I recently met some women and men who are in the situation described by Deputy Wallace. Those who said when a child was being adopted that certain people were the child's parents, even though they were not, engaged in illegal and criminal activity. It is an extraordinarily difficult situation for the people concerned as they try to trace their parents and get more information about their origins. It is a very complex situation for them.
The complexity is precisely what I have described to the Deputy. We must determine how far the legislation can go in giving a person who has been adopted a statutory right to seek information about his or her origins, given the constitutional provisions we have in relation to privacy. The Department of Children and Youth Affairs and the Office of the Attorney General are working on just how far the legislation can go in meeting that precise legal challenge, in light of the 1988 case that was mentioned earlier. The approach that was laid down in that case is the constitutional position at present. I think the Deputy is very familiar with it. That is the situation.
I will provide for the Adoption Authority of Ireland to dispense with the birth parent's right to consent in certain circumstances. A range of circumstances in which the authority can dispense with the consent of the parent will be outlined in the legislation. The authority will need to have regard to a range of criteria, some of which were mentioned in the 1988 case, such as the circumstances giving rise to the birth parent placing the child for adoption, the present circumstances of the birth parent, the effect on the birth parent of the disclosure of his or her identity to the adopted person, the attitude of the birth parent to the disclosure of his or her identity to the adopted person and the ages of the parties. I hope to include a range of criteria that will ensure the approach is more flexible than the current approach. It has to be within the bounds of the constitutional position.
As I do not want to mislead the House, I should clarify one aspect of what I said earlier. The person I mentioned who found hundreds of records in the attic approached the woman in question and told her about it. He told some agencies of the State that he had the records, but he still actually has them in his possession because no one really wanted them at the time. I want to let the Minister know that he still has them. When she has put an official body in place, I am sure he will approach it. I probably did not explain it correctly the first time. I want to let the Minister know that he still has the records in his possession. He is a good man. He has not thrown them into the public domain.
It is important, partly in light of Deputy Wallace's comment and partly because of the delay, that measures are put in place between now and the introduction of the legislation to protect the records that are out there. There is nothing in law to require or compel people to hand over private records. We are totally reliant on the goodwill of the individual. As Deputy Wallace said, the man in this instance is a good person. He still has the records. He could quite easily have thrown them all into the bin. Potentially, the identities of hundreds of people could have gone into the bin as well. It is incredibly serious. It is hard to see how this could be an isolated incident. I ask the Minister to deal with it.
It is regrettable that the Bill is still being worked on. We thought we would have seen it before now. I would be concerned about giving a central role to the Adoption Authority of Ireland. Questions have been raised by some of the adoption rights organisations about the functioning of the authority. If I understand the Minister correctly, it might not be given all of the files but it will be given responsibility for them. I wonder how that fits in with the present situation. The HSE has collected all the files in Glanmire. If I recall correctly my dealings with staff last year, they do not have the resources to do anything with those files. There is nobody to help someone who comes to look for information. Nobody is working to arrange them in a presentable way that would help people to find their identities. Are there any plans to deal with the backlog from a staffing point of view?
I suggest that the gentleman mentioned by Deputy Wallace who has these adoption records should have a discussion with the HSE or the Adoption Authority of Ireland in relation to the possibility of handing over those records. It seems to me that would be the right thing for this private individual who has access to adoption records from the past to do. As I said, work has already begun with the HSE on the gathering of records. If any Deputy knows about records that are in the possession of an individual, in the first instance there should be a discussion with the HSE or the Adoption Authority of Ireland about whether the individual wishes to hand them over or is in a position to do so. That would be far preferable than the records remaining in private hands as suggested by Deputy Daly.
I have mentioned that this work has commenced. The HSE has already gathered files from a variety of sources. I provided information earlier on the number of places where files have been gathered from. There is no reason not to continue with the process that is in place.
Given the number of adoptions that took place in Ireland over the years, managing those records and organising them so they are more accessible is a large task. This is something of which the HSE adoption services are very conscious. Clearly, the overall adoption situation is changing very dramatically, as I said during the week. It has changed not just nationally but internationally, and there has been quite a drop in the number of adoptions. However, the HSE still has an adoption service and adoption workers, and it will be working increasingly in this area.
Ombudsman for Children Reports
Pearse Doherty
Question:7. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs if she will advise her and her Department’s analysis, if same has been done, of the more than 1,200 complaints recorded and addressed by the Ombudsman for Children in 2012; if it is the practice that year on year such an analysis is undertaken in order to take appropriate action to help reduce, if not eliminate, the causes of repeat issues arising; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [21771/13]
As the Deputy is aware, the Ombudsman for Children is an independent officer of the State and accounts for her statutory functions to the Oireachtas. As Minister, I have certain functions and responsibilities for the Ombudsman for Children's office under the Ombudsman for Children Act 2002. This primarily relates to governance matters, most notably the funding of the Ombudsman for Children's office through the Vote of my Department.
The Ombudsman for Children, Ms Emily Logan, has not yet published her annual report for 2012. I know it is the practice of the ombudsman to provide a full analysis of the number and nature of complaints received when she produces her annual report to the Oireachtas in due course. I am aware that a figure of 1,200 was mentioned in recent media coverage of the impact of new legislative measures that took effect on 1 May 2013 for both the Ombudsman, Ms. Emily O'Reilly, and the Ombudsman for Children. However, the Ombudsman for Children's office has confirmed that the number of complaints received in 2012 was, in fact, 1,465. By comparison, the number of complaints received in 2011 was 1,393, so there was an increase of approximately 100.
It is a matter for each Minister, including myself as Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, together with our respective Departments, to consider the issues raised by Ms Logan, not only in her reports to the Oireachtas but on an ongoing basis in our respective dealings with the Ombudsman for Children's office, through the mechanisms provided in the legislation that applies. Clearly, the Ombudsman for Children has performed a valuable ongoing role in advancing the rights and welfare of children in Ireland since her appointment to that role in 2004. She is in constant contact with Oireachtas committees and provides advices to Government on legislation. Representatives from her office were recently working with us on the development of the Children First legislation and she also, in a public way, highlights various policies and practices affecting the lives of children which need to be changed. The Ombudsman for Children Act 2002 provides that, in the performance of her complaints and investigative functions, she of course has regard to the best interests of the child.
I have met Ms Logan on quite a number of occasions and I have taken the opportunity to get a first-hand account of the areas about which she is concerned. As I said, we liaise with her office on an ongoing basis in regard to legislation and services. We review the ombudsman's report when it comes in, as we want to identify patterns or concerns that would benefit from further policy consideration.
I thank the Minister for her reply. At the outset, I want to say I have great respect for Ms Logan and for her office. The purpose of my question is to establish whether the Office of the Ombudsman for Children is dealing with the various cases that come before it. We all receive the annual report - I have attended its launch on a number of occasions - and we all then continue on into the following year. I am anxious to establish what is the current level of engagement and what analysis there may be in regard to issues and causes of complaint. Is there currently a crossover between the Department of Children and Youth Affairs and the Office of the Ombudsman for Children in seeking to identify measures that could be taken to eliminate, if possible, or at least in some way mitigate against the worst possible outcomes in regard to given situations that must be repeating year on year? It is very important that while my question referred to more than 1,200 complaints, we note from the figures the Minister has just cited that it was much more in 2012, at 1,465 cases, up from a figure of 1,393 for the previous year.
My question seeks to establish whether there is that level of address and, if not, whether the Minister would regard such an exercise as useful. Obviously, it is something Ms Logan would have to be directly involved in. It is not about the individual cases per se, or about the detail of any individual case or complaint received, or, indeed, its address; it is about the broad brush-stroke situations that may present in significant numbers across the profile of the 1,465 cases last year, and how we can inform ourselves to do something that might - I emphasise "might" - make a difference in regard to those situations that present repeatedly.
The Deputy makes a very reasonable point in regard to reports. Obviously, many reports regarding children and young people are presented to the Department, and the ombudsman's report is a very important one. The Deputy will remember that I said in the Dáil in March 2012, in response to a parliamentary question, that I undertook to consider the recommendations in Ms Logan's report, which was the report by the Ombudsman for Children on the operation of the Ombudsman for Children Act 2002 and which contained a whole range of recommendations similar to those that often appear in the annual reports. I did that. I have taken up with other colleagues a range of points Ms Logan has made, where they are of relevance, such as in the areas of justice, education and health, and I have asked for their response to the recommendations she made.
To take one example of where we follow through, a point Ms Logan has made repeatedly is in regard to her having responsibility for and being able to access and investigate issues involving the Adoption Authority. That has now happened under the review of the ombudsman legislation which the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Howlin, undertook. My officials were in contact with his Department to make progress on that issue and it was in the legislation we passed here in October. With regard to the National Council for Special Education, the Deputy will be aware that on many occasions Ms Logan has raised in her reports the issue of the council coming under her remit. That has also now happened. She also made recommendations in regard to other issues which we have followed up on, so there has been follow-on in a whole range of areas.
A broader question arises in terms of the many reports on children that have been published over the years. There is a need to bring them all together and to undertake a forensic examination of the recommendations. For example, a particular committee is looking at the Ryan report and its recommendations. Every few months, we assess in detail the recommendations and the progress that is being made, but there are so many other reports. My Department is currently undertaking an analysis and trying to draw up a very structured response, precisely as the Deputy has suggested, to the range of recommendations that come across our desks in the whole variety of reports that have been published in recent months and years.
I welcome the Minister's reply. She demonstrates that the essence of what I am trying to get at is actually happening. Whether or not the full potential of what could be achieved is currently in train is something we can explore again. I welcome the positivity of the Minister's reply and I commend that continuing approach to develop it, where possible.
Child Development
Mary Lou McDonald
Question:8. Deputy Mary Lou McDonald asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs her plans, if any, to address the need for prospective parent awareness of the importance of love, nurture and stability in the early and formative years of their children's lives for their general development, health and fulfilment throughout all their days; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [21766/13]
Brendan Smith
Question:11. Deputy Brendan Smith asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs if there are plans to introduce a parent strategy. [21845/13]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 8 and 11 together.
The family continues to occupy a central and vitally important place in Irish society, and the quality of family relationships and factors within the home have a huge impact on children's development.
In many ways, some of the best descriptions we have seen about the experience of Irish children have been in the recent State of the Nation’s Children report, which gives us very valuable information about the quality of Irish children's experiences. There are some very good stories there about Irish childhood. In addition, the vulnerabilities of certain children are highlighted in that report, as they are in the longitudinal studies now emerging. I repeat that it is very important that we now have our own Irish research telling us about Irish children, that more money has gone into Irish research and that we are not dependent on international research.
We are lucky in Ireland to have generally positive parent-child relationships. The State of the Nation's Children report found that 82% of children aged between ten and 17 reported that they find it easy to talk to their mothers when something is bothering them and that an increasing number speak to their fathers as well. A further report last year from Dr. Elizabeth Nixon based on Growing Up in Ireland data focused on how families matter for children's social and emotional well-being and highlighted again just how instrumental parents are in their children's development. We all know this intuitively but we now have the research that really goes into detail on parental relationships with children and how important they are for children's learning and social and emotional well-being.
Good parenting is critical for children's outcomes, which is why the area of family support is so important and will continue to be important in the new Child and Family Support Agency. Clearly, support to teenage parents is very important as well and this comes under the National Education Welfare Board, which will work with the family resource centres in the new agency.
I must ask the Minister to conclude.
I will conclude by saying that I believe the new agency presents us with an opportunity to consolidate and develop effective, evidence-based parenting and family supports.
I call on Deputies Ó Caoláin and Troy as we are running short on time.
One cannot overstate the importance of this particular area. We prepare young people for all sorts of responsibilities in life through the education system but there is very little focus on or preparation for the responsibilities of parenting, which is a huge responsibility and arguably even more important than many other considerations currently occupying top positions. We need a two-pronged approach to this reflected in the education system, particularly through second level. The role and responsibilities of parenting should an integral part of the preparation for life.
There is also the question of those who are already parents. There can be no over employment of reminders along the way because the challenges of parenting, particularly in those early years, are huge. There was a dependence heretofore in large measure on generational supports in traditional Irish families that are not always available. I am sure I am not the only Deputy aware of cases of people literally trying to cope alone, which is a terrible situation to be in. The difficult situations that present themselves are not reflective of a lack of natural love, nurture and wish for stability. More people are having great difficulties in these times than at any previous time.
Consideration should be given to supports in the form of a booklet for national distribution. This is a significant area. All research shows that these crucial years have a critical influence on later life for young people. There is no end of opportunities that could be employed for reminders and supporters along the way. By reminders, I mean re-stating what many of us might think to be obvious but which is not always so if one is coping in very difficult circumstances.
I will be very brief. When Barack Obama, who is arguably the most powerful man in the world, was re-elected to the White House, he sent out a tweet about how the most difficult and rewarding job of all was being a father. When one looks at it in that context, it is very important that we put in the necessary supports to support people who are doing the most difficult and rewarding job of all, namely, parenting.
I welcome the fact that the Minister has acknowledged that when the new child and family support agency comes on stream, there will be an evidence-based approach in terms of putting in structures to support parenting. In my constituency of Longford-Westmeath, one finds Triple P - the Positive Parenting Programme, which is a very positive development of which the Minister is aware. That programme is being expanded to Laois and Offaly in the coming year. There are schemes out there but we want to ensure the best schemes and a more uniform approach are used because at the moment, a more diverse approach is used depending on what part of the country one lives in. The new child and family support agency should be charged with ensuring that we have the best possible scheme in place to support our parents who are doing the most difficult and rewarding job of all.
There is a huge range of parenting programmes that are in very big demand around the country. Significant numbers of Irish parents are availing of supports out there be they through family resource centres, local voluntary groups or counselling services. We have research about what models of intervention work and that research is coming on stream more and more. For example, we know that public health nurses are doing really effective work with young, lone parents in supporting their parenting and that those interventions have really worked. Public health nurses throughout the country are a significant resource. That is one aspect of the work that is being done.
The new area-based approach to child poverty gives us an opportunity to build in supports for the most vulnerable families about which Deputy Ó Caoláin spoke. Certainly building in parenting programmes to that work and area-based poverty initiatives will be very important. There is a significant range of work ongoing. It is important to say again that for the vast majority of Irish children, Irish childhood and parenting have changed beyond recognition in terms of greater sensitivity to the needs of children, listening to the views of children and putting the best interests of the child at the centre of considerations. That is the reality for most Irish children. We have identified more vulnerable children in the State of the Nation's Children reports. They can be immigrant children, Traveller children and children exposed to poverty. For those children, these kinds of extra supports to parents can make all the difference to the quality of their lives. I agree with Deputy Troy that we need to examine the various programmes to ensure we are supplying the kind of programmes that we know are effective and work well. The Triple P programme is one example. In other countries, they have taken a range of these programmes and decided that certain programmes will get Government support and we should do the same here. They would be the ones that have proved to be effective in supporting parents.
Written Answers follow Adjournment.