Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 8 April 2014
552. Deputy Jack Wall asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs her views on a submission (details supplied) regarding adoption; her plans to address this very sensitive issue; if she will investigate the proposals in the submission and act upon them; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [16746/14]
View answerI fully appreciate that the desire to know one's identity, or to re-establish contact with a child, is very fundamental and entirely reasonable. I acknowledge that the existing procedures in the area of information and tracing, both legislative and administrative, are not ideal and I have been anxious to see improvement in this regard.
As I have stated on a number of occasions it is important to note that complex legal and constitutional issues have arisen in the drafting of the Bill. A particular challenge has arisen in the attempt to reconcile an adopted person’s request for information about his or her identity with the right to privacy of his or her birth parent where consent has not been provided. The right to privacy has been firmly established as a constitutional right through a series of legal cases which began in 1974 with McGee v. Attorney General, which concerned marital privacy, and culminated in the Kennedy v. Ireland case in 1987 where a general Constitutional right to privacy was recognised. The right to privacy was also recognised in the IO'T v .B case, a supreme court case from 1998. The case concerned two people who were the subject of so-called " informal" adoptions. The majority of the Court held that a natural child had an implied constitutional right to know the identity of his or her mother though this had to be balanced against the right of the natural mother to privacy.
My Department is continuing to consult with the Office of the Attorney General on this and on a number of related issues. One reason for the discussions with the Attorney General is to continue to tease out precisely how this can be done in the context of what I must state is extremely strong legal advice about the constitutional protection of the rights of the natural mother to privacy. I continue to explore how far the Government can go in building into legislation that right of the adopted person to get access to information without breaching the Constitution. This is the reason it is taking this length of time to draft the Heads of Bill.
I intend to submit the Heads of Bill for Government approval as soon as these issues have been addressed. Once approved by Government, the Heads of Bill will be sent to the Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children for its detailed consideration. The process of sending the Heads of Bill to that Committee will ensure that the provisions of the proposed legislation will be subject to public scrutiny and it is of course open to that Committee to invite and encourage submissions from all interested parties.
I have been anxious to see improvements to existing procedures for the provision of adoption information and tracing services, which are provided nationally by the Child and Family Agency. A number of religious orders have transferred records from their Mother and Baby Homes and Adoption Societies to the Child and Family Agency. Work by the Agency on the organising and storage of these records is underway and the advice of the National Archives has been sought in relation to the proper storage of these records that are of great significance.
I have raised the importance of arrangements for the management of these records directly with the Child and Family Agency and I have also asked my officials to examine the work that could be undertaken with the Child and Family Agency, the Adoption Authority and other stakeholders to improve arrangements for managing and accessing the records that are available.
I would urge birth mothers to enrol on the National Adoption Contact Preference Register which was established in 2005 to assist adopted people and their natural families to make contact with each other, exchange information or state their contact preferences. Applicants decide, through a range of information and contact options, how they wish to proceed. The Adoption Authority of Ireland has responsibility for the operation of the Contact Preference Register. I believe there is an opportunity in the context of the considerable public attention this area is receiving to promote awareness amongst women whose children were adopted of the importance of registering their consent for contact to be re-established.
I can assure you that I am anxious to provide access to as much adoption information as possible taking account of relevant legal and constitutional considerations.
