Ms Susan Lohan:

I would like to respond to Deputy Mitchell O'Connor on the lead-in time. I agree with Mr. Redmond that it needs to be intensive. We cannot delay this any further because the advertising campaign is envisaged to start after the enactment of the Bill, so we might well already have a couple of years of a delay.

In 2010, we campaigned furiously with the previous Government for the 2010 Adoption Bill to include provisions for every adopted person to know that they are adopted, and for that to be part of their life story from a very early age. That recommendation was turned down, so today - whether legally or illegally adopted - nobody has a right to know that they are adopted. When we are putting through other amendments to other Bills we should bear that in mind.