Mr. Martin Parfrey:

If a measure such as this were imposed on any other sector of society on any ground, be it colour, religion, class or something else, there would be absolute uproar and probably a case would be brought to the European Court of Human Rights. Why should adoptees be singled out for such treatment? Moreover, the measure is unnecessary for a number of reasons. First, adoptees are not stalkers and usually respect the wishes of others as par for the course, without being bound to do so by legislation.

Let me give two examples. Recently I heard of a woman who realised when in the queue at her local Woodies that the woman right in front of her was her birth mother, who did not want contact. Difficult as it had to be for her, she resisted the temptation to tap her on the shoulder and introduce herself. The other example concerns a woman I knew in Dublin some years ago who located her birth mother in Cork, who did not want contact. She drove to Cork because, out of curiosity, she wanted to see her mother and where she lived. She sat in the car, saw her mother and went back to Dublin and never attempted to make contact. Again, that must have been a very difficult thing to do. Therefore, we do not need to be handcuffed by legislation.

Also, this legislation only proposes access to birth certificates. It does not propose to identify the whereabouts of the birth mother. Therefore, I do not believe it clashes with the IOT v. B case in any way, because it does not identify the whereabouts of the mother. The last comment I would like to say on this is that we get a significant number of situations in which a birth mother will at first, because she is in shock, refuse contact. However, given time to absorb what is happening, she will often change her mind. We had a classic case of this in our group in the past year. After a mother who was vehemently opposed to any form of contact had had time to think about it, she changed her mind. At the end of one of our meetings a few months ago, Mr. Walsh and I watched the same mother and daughter almost tripping on the stairs. Because they were so wrapped around each other, they were putting their lives in danger instead of watching where they were going. Therefore, that statutory declaration is complete nonsense.