The amendments in this group introduce a new Part to provide for the preservation of the defined categories of records held by private actors so that they are preserved in the public interest. I recognise that this section came late in the day. I thank all of the Senators who have engaged with me on this particular point and I know that we have held a number of briefings for Senators and Deputies. I hope we have explained our wanting to move fast with this particular protection. The private actors would include anyone who holds records on mother and baby and county home institutions, Magdalen laundries, industrial schools and reformatories, orphanages, as well as the bodies which ran or oversaw these institutions. This would also include those who hold records related to adoption agencies and those who were involved in placing people for adoption into a care arrangement, into an institution, and with a person who assumed the role of parent to them, therefore including illegal birth registrations also.
Amendment No. 9 defines the key terms used in the new Part 3, including "relevant record", "institution", "relevant body", "information source" and "public interest".
Amendment No. 10 provides that the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth may designate by order an institution, a relevant body or a relevant record. It means that the Minister can actually add additional records, institutions or organisations to a list which will be covered by this particular piece of legislation. This is an important flexibility which is built into the legislation. While the legislation aims to be as encompassing as possible, this section is included to ensure that any relevant institution, bodies or records which come to life and are not covered by the Bill now can subsequently be covered.
Amendment No. 11 places an obligation on any private holder of a record to preserve it and makes it an offence to destroy, mutilate, falsify or fail to maintain the relevant record or to export them from the State. It also provides that the Director of the National Archives may direct a person or body to provide a statement outlining the relevant records in their possession.
Amendment No. 12 provides for offences under the legislation. The offences mirror those set out in the Birth Information and Tracing Act 2022, namely, that on summary conviction, a class A fine or imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months, or both, or, on conviction on indictment, a fine not exceeding €50,000 or imprisonment for a term not exceeding three years, or both.
Amendment No. 13 sets out the standard provisions for the service of notice.
Amendment No. 14 amended the National Archives Act 1986 to include the new functions assigned to the director under the legislation. As I said at the outset, legislation on this has been called for by survivors and former residents, affected persons, their families and advocates. They want to ensure that the records that support the understanding of their identity, but also the institutional systems which shaped their life experience in such a significant way, are preserved or maintained. While the Birth Information and Tracing Act 2022 was able to protect, preserve and allow access to private records and to people's own individual birth and early life information, we are seeking to protect here the wider institutional records, the financial books, the ledgers, the house rules and all of those things which are not directly linked to one person's information but are nevertheless very important in understanding how these institutions operated and their wider impact on the women and children who were placed within them and, indeed, on wider society.
I am bringing these amendments forward as Committee Stage amendments to allow this urgent and important legislation to travel quickly through the necessary Stages in the Oireachtas
