Jillian van Turnhout (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I want to come back to two points the witnesses raised, in respect of the compelling reasons or understanding. While we have not been able to tie it down, we are talking about an absolute exception, a life or death situation. There is no other compelling reason. We will try to ring-fence that to make absolutely clear what a compelling reason is.

Ms Mugan said that many women the agency deals with have no recollection. I appreciate the sensitivity of that point. In the picture she painted what percentage are they of those who come forward? My difficulty is that we hear about these exceptional cases and we do not hear about all the joyous occasions or the hunger on both sides. As a keen genealogist, I am very aware that a person with any type of unusual name and an idea of the townland, can get eight certificates from the GRO for €4 each immediately. I could get those and over several weeks order as many as I wish for the GRO to e-mail to me. There is a great deal of information available. If we do not make the system accessible we are forcing people to use other routes.

We need to take note of the point about the parish priest and data protection for this legislation because there should be compellability for that information. Have there been any other problems in respect of transfer of records? We need to ensure access, whether they are from societies or other bodies. Are there issues that we as legislators need to address to ensure those barriers are not raised in front of the agency?

Ms Mugan mentioned non-identifying information. The nature and scope of the non-identifying information given depends on where a person lives. The Child and Family Agency does not seem to have a consistent approach. I am not talking about the different types of record because I fully appreciate that there are different types. This is down to individual social workers, some who have been brilliant and really try to give as much non-identifying information as possible, others will literally tell the client: “Your mother was a woman. She lived in a rural area.” Can we not give people more? What is the agency doing to ensure consistency by social workers when they approach this work? Will they have to be trained? Mr. Quinlan spoke about public awareness but when people approach the Child and Family Agency will they get that consistent response? We have to ensure that happens and may have to resource it too as part of the public awareness.