Ms Helen Gilmartin:

I am the adoptive mother of four children, all of whom were adopted slightly older than usual at the ages of nine months, 11 months, two years and two and a half years. Of the three who have met their birth mothers, two have also met other members of their birth families, including siblings.

I have been working in the area of adoption counselling and support, etc., for almost 30 years. I was honorary secretary of the Adoptive Parents Association of Ireland, APAI, which campaigned for many years for the establishment of a contact register to enable adopted children and their birth mothers to make contact with each other, if that was what they wanted. We were part of the consultative group which culminated in the setting up of the national contact preference register in 2005. Many of the other members stepped back after that because they felt we had achieved quite a lot, but, as my contact information was included in leaflets and publications, including the Golden Pages, I left it there. As a result, my workload increased and multiplied exponentially because the greater the publicity, the more people were looking for information. As the APAI was listed under the letter "A" for adoption information and irrespective of what aspect was involved, they tended to telephone me. I continue to assist adopted persons and birth mothers, as well as some birth fathers, when they telephone or e-mail looking for information on how to make contact with a significant other person and I am delighted to do so. I do not work office hours, which means that I am available at all hours. I have received telephone calls from the United States and Australia at weird hours of the day and night, but I am delighted to be able to help and enjoy a great deal of success in what I do. I am sure committee members can accept that I have always been wholeheartedly in favour of the provision of information and tracing.

Counselling is a vital part of the process.

I find that when people are younger, aged 18 or 19, their immediate wish is to have instant access to everything. One has to talk them down from that and explain how they can go about it in the proper way. It is not a matter of just going on social media when they get a hint of their original birth name. That is one aspect that has to be considered in the giving of information. It is very easy for people to do a trace and they can be very successful. They can be so successful that they land on the wrong doorstep and approach the wrong person.

Will I refer to the heads of the Bill? Is that the mechanism?