Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The only issue is that the legislation does not use the words "exceptional circumstances". It uses the term "well-being". I am very conscious of, and I want to come back to this, the desirability where possible of facilitating individuals born through assisted reproduction or through adoption to trace origins, but one has to have a robust and coherent procedure and there has to be a prescription as to how it is going to work. The Minister has not replied as to whether it is envisaged a Minister who turns down an application would effectively be the defendant or the respondent in these applications and would play a role in defending the decision or whether the Circuit Court would be at large to consider it all from the perspective of what has been submitted to the court and then make a decision. I do not know the answer to that. Perhaps that could be clarified.

I do think it is important that there is a reasoned basis for the decision. It is not simply that the Minister decides he or she is not going to release the information and there are no reasons given. There is a need for this section to delineate an obligation to detail the reasons for the decision made.

I am presuming on the other side of this, as we are dealing with this, that if a decision is made by the Minister to make the information available, the donor can appeal to the Circuit Court. Equally, where the Minister rejects the donor's objection, presumably the donor should know the reason why. If it is a one-sided appeal, that would be a very strange procedure. I am particularly concerned in circumstances where the appeal is not going to be dealt with, from what the Minister said, in the initial period when this legislation might be in force by a specialist body. It is going to be dealt with by the Minister or the Minister will make a decision based on whatever recommendation he or she may or may not get from officials in his or her office who are assigned to process these applications.