Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 10 November 2020
549. Deputy Holly Cairns asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if the Civil Registration Act 2004 will be amended to ensure that all adopted persons have access to their publicly registered birth certificate; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34762/20]
View answer550. Deputy Holly Cairns asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if an Act will be introduced to ensure respect for the dignity and privacy rights of persons with experience of historical abuse within the social care and adoption system here by providing them with explicit statutory rights and clear avenues to access their personal data, to facilitate them in depositing personal data or other information about their experiences for the national historical record where desired and to facilitate an ongoing process of national truth telling in respect of Ireland’s social care and adoption system; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34763/20]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 549 and 550 together.
The Adoption (Information and Tracing) Bill, 2016 dealt with access to birth information for adoptees and others seeking to know their origins. The Bill lapsed with the dissolution of the Dáil. I am currently committed to advancing fresh proposals in this area which will achieve the policy aim of allowing access to information, including birth certificates, for adoptees and others. Decisions regarding any amendments to current legislation will be considered in that context.
It is important to acknowledge that this is a subject of fundamental importance to very many adopted people. The issues at the heart of the debate are complex and very personal. I have engaged with representative groups on this issue and will continue to engage widely in order to help achieve a legislative consensus. I am committed to developing legislation that will help deliver much needed access to information for adopted people.
On the matter of depositing personal experiences and facilitating national truth telling, the Government has committed to establishing, on a formal, national basis, an archive of records related to institutional trauma during the 20th century. This will include archiving relevant records and witness testimony by victims and survivors. It will be developed at a suitable site and operated in accordance with the highest international standards. It will be designed in cooperation with professional archivists and historians, as well as with victims, survivors and their advocates.
