Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 3 February 2021
498. Deputy Kathleen Funchion asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if his attention has been drawn to a scoping exercise and report his predecessor commissioned into forced and illegal adoption practices in Ireland; and when he plans to release its findings. [5715/21]
View answer499. Deputy Kathleen Funchion asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if his predecessor consulted with Tusla and the Adoption Authority of Ireland on the scoping exercise and report into forced and illegal adoption practices; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5717/21]
View answer500. Deputy Kathleen Funchion asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the sample size used to carry out the scoping exercise and report into forced and illegal adoption practices in Ireland; and the methodology deployed. [5718/21]
View answer502. Deputy Kathleen Funchion asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if he will request Tusla to further investigate forced and illegal adoption practices in Ireland in view of the overwhelming evidence that emerged from the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes testimonies that this practice was widespread. [5720/21]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 498, 499, 500 and 502 together.
The scoping exercise to which the Deputy refers was commenced by my predecessor following Tusla’s discovery of evidence of illegal birth registrations in the files of the defunct St. Patrick’s Guild Adoption Society between the years 1946 and 1969.
While it had long been suspected that illegal birth registrations were carried out in Ireland, the files of St. Patrick’s Guild were unique in that there was a marker on the files specifying that children were adopted from birth.
The scoping exercise was commissioned to investigate whether there is sufficient reliable evidence of that practice in the records of other adoption agencies and similar institutions. The then Minister appointed Ms Marion Reynolds, an experienced social worker from Northern Ireland, to oversee a review of a sample of the files held by the Adoption Authority of Ireland (AAI) and Tusla.
The Independent Reviewer worked with the AAI and Tusla to identify a sample of files to review to determine if they contain comparable evidence of illegal birth registrations. Records were selected from: adoption agencies; nursing homes which acted as ‘informal adoption agencies’; and boarding out services selected geographically to provide national coverage.
The report of the Independent Reviewer ('Sampling Review') was not published upon its completion so as not to encroach on the work of the Commission of Inquiry into Mother and Baby Homes and Certain Related Matters. A copy of the report was provided to the Commission.
Now that the Commission has published its final report, I intend to publish the Sampling Review into illegal birth registrations in the coming weeks.
