Ms Helen Gilmartin:

Yes. Part 3, head 10 on the information and tracing service is the "Function of Agency to provide information and tracing service". The background is that the authority has operated the National Adoption Contact Preference Register since its establishment in 2005. This register is to be discontinued and a one-stop shop will be provided for in the Bill. The new register should not negate all that went before. There is much that should be salvaged from the contact register because it cost a lot to set up and maintain.

On head 11, the Adoption Information Register of Ireland which will be established is a new register and it is not proposed to transfer the existing entries to it. There are approximately 11,500 entries on the current register. Why not transfer the existing entries to the new register? The National Adoption Contact Preference Register was set up at a considerable financial cost to the State and great personal investment by the people who registered on it. Most of those who registered did so with the expectation of successful reunions or to exchange personal or medical information. Some indicated that they did not want contact at that time. Why should these original entries not migrate to the new register? It seems wasteful and dismissive of people's hopes when they responded to the publicity for the contact register and the leaflet drop to virtually every home in the country. The new register should encourage those already on it to reapply, particularly to update their original information. However, they should not have to reapply for inclusion on the new register when they have already applied to the old one. Why store this information with the authority when ideally it should be readily accessible to the new register? An adopted person can indicate that he or she does not want contact with his or her birth parent. I suggest that the phrase "at this time" or "at present" should be added to it. Otherwise it is like saying, "No way, this is it, this is my final answer". If somebody indicates that they do not want contact, whether they are the adopted person or the birth parent, it should have "at this time" added to it.

Head 12, on pages 48 and 49, provides for the "Allocation of monies for performance of functions by Agency and Authority and provision for charging fees". There are huge problems with proposals to charge people for anything to do with information and tracing. I am shocked at the implied threat to use the courts to recover unpaid fees. Instead of making it easier and more user friendly, this will arouse great resentment among those applicants seeking to learn something about their identities which were shrouded in secrecy through no fault of their own and, dare I say it, with the connivance of the State.

Head 13 concerns "Information for adopted person where adoption order made prior to commencement of Bill". For the foreseeable future, all applicants will have had their adoption order made prior to the commencement of this Bill. Ideally an adopted person will have counselling as soon as possible after applying to the agency for a search to be undertaken. Non-identifying information about the birth mother should not include any fine detail of her circumstances without her permission. Even without naming names, when people are given a few clues about siblings, for example, it is very exciting for people to go racing off to do their own research and find it all out themselves. Social media is the prime source and has produced hair-raising results. Unfortunately they might very successfully find the wrong person and, metaphorically speaking, land on the wrong doorstep. Even when the searcher turns up on the right doorstep, the person who is found without any warning can very easily respond negatively, denying ever having a baby and even slamming the door. It is hard to come back from that.

If the birth mother is located and engages with the agency and there is a prospect of reunion then it still should not be part of the agency's brief to pass on her personal information. Details of her marriage and other children or where she lives should be her choice to reveal when she wishes to and at her own pace. Nobody else should assume the right to disclose her history unless she is ready to share it, neither should they assume the right to disclose the name of the birth father. After all, the father's name given when the records were taken might have been aspirational rather than actual. Without a DNA test it is risky to assume anything, unless the putative birth father acknowledges his status.

Likewise, telling someone that they were conceived as a result of rape is information for further down the line and should be handled very carefully. Counselling is vital, not just exchanging information. The adopted person's history has been made with a family that they feel is their own, with parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, nieces and nephews. Often they have siblings - some adopted, some born to the family. Instead of developing into friendships, I have seen reunions fizzle out sooner than they should simply because of an impatience to know everything and an insistence to meet people who might never have been told about this part of their mother's history, for example, if the birth mother has married and had children and has not told her husband or the children of her marriage that she had a child before she was married. It is wrong to assume that anybody has a right to barge in on all of her relationships just because an individual needs or expects to have full disclosure. I emphasise that because I have seen it crash and burn because it has not been handled properly.

During the reunion and discovery process, the birth mother will gradually reveal enough information to enable the adopted person to get their original birth certificate without applying to anyone else for permission. That would be where there is an agreement to contact. I do not think the giving of the birth certificate should pre-empt that part of the search and reunion. If the birth mother cannot meet or divulge any information, then the birth certificate becomes relevant. Prior to that if there is a meeting, the adopted person knows his or her own date of birth. If they are meeting the birth mother they will know her name. They will be able to get their birth certificate very easily if they have not got it already. Many adopted people get it before going on the register.