Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 16 April 2013
152. Deputy Clare Daly asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs if she will adopt a similar approach as that of the Australian government in apologising and acknowledging the people who were illegally adopted in that State. [17248/13]
View answer155. Deputy Clare Daly asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the steps she will take to vindicate the right to an identity for citizens illegally adopted here. [17249/13]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 152 and 155 together.
The issue in Ireland of illegal adoptions relates to illegal registrations, i.e. 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. I have met with individuals who have found themselves in these circumstance and I acknowledge and empathise with the dilemma that these individuals are addressing.
Efforts have been made by the Adoption Authority of Ireland and the HSE, within their legal remit, to facilitate the investigations that these individuals are undertaking in endeavouring to establish medical and/or identifying information about themselves. Further efforts are required to move beyond that and endeavour to trace birth parents, children and or siblings who are affected by this issue.
In consultation with the AAI and the HSE, my Department is examining legislative and administrative options in relation to accessing records which may exist. I am also examining provisions in this regard in the forthcoming Adoption (Information and Tracing) Bill. I have recently received further legal advice from the Office of the Attorney General in regard to complex legal and constitutional issues which have arisen during the course of drafting the Heads of Bill. These issues are currently under consideration in my Department.
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 with another party sometime in the future. Fundamental to the success of the NCPR is that any persons with information in this regard contact the Information and Tracing Unit of the AAI. The Adoption Act 1952 provided a legal basis for adoption in Ireland and for the establishment of the Adoption Board thereby bringing order to what had been the ad hoc arrangements which had previously existed in lieu of formal adoption procedures. That Act was replaced by the Adoption Act 2010. All adoptions in Ireland since 1952 have been carried out in line with this legislation.
