Ms Margaret Dromey:

A couple of observations, the first one is that I am delighted Senator van Turnhout highlighted the issue of what we see as the false birth certificates since 2010. We have raised it several times and I hope this group can do something about it. Ms Gilmartin mentioned the short-form birth certificate. That solved the problem of people not wanting to give their personal information to everybody, but they are no longer accepted for most purposes. We need to find a way of having a certificate that will be acceptable to the State but is not falsifying.

On step-parent adoption, I agree with the speaker. For years Treoir has been saying that step-parent adoption is very often inappropriate. While a woman's husband may want to have a legal relationship with her child, we feel adoption, which severs the child's link with the biological father's family, is completely inappropriate. We think the Children and Family Relationships Act will be of relevance here. A man who is married to a woman with a child that is not his child may be able to apply for guardianship. That will not be changing the child's identity but it will be giving that man legal rights in respecting of raising the child. People may still be attracted to the adoption route because under the legal relationship of guardianship, that link would sever when the child is 18, whereas adoption is long term.

We in Treoir favour statutory declarations but we would suggest that both the mother and the adoptee should have to sign them, rather than just the adoptee, as is provided in the legislation. There are issues of respecting the other person. I know there are difficulties about it.

Balancing the rights of adoptees and that very small number of older women is the real challenge. In years to come I do not think there will be the same challenge at all; it is just for that small group. It is a pity in a way that all the legislation might almost be dropped because of that. We have to find a way of dealing with it while bearing in mind that it is for a short time and in the future there will be much more openness.