Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 17 January 2013
193. Deputy Anne Ferris asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the total estimated number of children illegally adopted; the further investigations she intends to carry out to ascertain same; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [2191/13]
View answerThe issue relates to children who were given at birth to other individuals who registered these children as their own and who are now unable to access personal records and information. The issue of illegal registrations of births is a matter for the General Registrations Office (GRO) under the remit of the Department of Social Protection. The GRO have advised that historically birth registration was based on a presumption of honesty and that cases of illegal registrations are referred to the Gardai Síochána.
I am informed by the Adoption Authority of Ireland that in mid-2010 the then Adoption Board conducted a review of information it retained of contact received from persons seeking to trace their natural parents where no adoption records existed. This exercise indicated that 99 people who had identified themselves to the Board as adopted, did not have a corresponding adoption file. Around 45 of these cases related to people born after 1953 and the balance related to persons born pre-1953.
A further 20 applications have since been made. The AAI have advised that approximately 50% of those who register are natural mothers seeking to trace their child while the other 50% are adults seeking to trace their natural parent(s). Many adults seeking to trace their natural parent(s) have 'Birth Certificates' which state that persons other than their natural parents were their natural parents. In many cases they are aware that the details contained in the Register of Births are false and that their birth was registered incorrectly.
As no adoption took place there would be no adoption file and the Adoption Authority of Ireland (AAI) can be of limited assistance. While the AAI has no statutory role in instances of illegal registrations of births it does facilitate the information and tracing process for such illegal registrations to the extent open to it, in particular through the National Contact Preference Register. When the former Adoption Board launched the National Adoption Contact Preference Register in 2005, provision was made for persons, who were party to the illegal registration of a child, to register an interest in the Register for possible future contact contact with another party sometime in the future.
