Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 5 November 2015

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children

General Scheme of Adoption (Information and Tracing) Bill 2015: Discussion (Resumed)

9:30 am

Mr. Tom Walsh:

Senator Burke asked what more could be done. Right now, the general drift of this Bill is good. A lot more should be in it but we will begin small. We need to establish a force of people on the ground who will deal with the provisions of the Bill efficiently, effectively and quickly. I use the word "quickly". Senator Burke queried what is adequate time. The phrase "undue delay" is used in the Bill. That phrase is abhorrent to me. By putting it in the legislation, the Legislature is accepting there will be a delay and that it is somehow excusable. To me a reasonable time between starting, finding and producing a result from start to finish is six months at most. We are in an IT age. A person can push a button on a computer and whatever information is sought will be brought up on a screen there and then.

That is an aside.

The member asked how best to make this work. I am not being facetious but in a different arena it was suggested to me that in order to make a thing work, I should kiss. My reaction was, "What?" The answer I was given was, "Keep it simple, stupid". I will leave it at that.

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