Caít Keane (Fine Gael)

I wish to raise adoption rights. Such rights in this country lag far behind those of adoptees in England, Scotland and Wales to mention just our nearest neighbours. We are still governed under the 1952 Act, even though an Adoption Act was introduced in 2010 but it did not address rights. In terms of search and reunion, when people seek their birth parents they can only retrieve non-identifying information from the social work agency at which they were adopted but they are not given automatic rights to their birth certificate. They are given these rights in England and Wales and in Northern Ireland since 1975. I ask the Leader of the House to speak to the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy Fitzgerald.