Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy O'Sullivan. I understand and respect her reasons for tabling the amendment. It is important that she do so. In light of that, I will give a full response on her amendment proposing an information and tracing scheme.

In response to the Deputy's amendment on an information and tracing scheme, I will say a little about the Adoption (Information and Tracing) Bill which was circulated to Departments on Friday, 11 November, and will provide a statutory basis for the provision of information on both past and future adoptions. The Bill is intended to facilitate access to adoption information and operate on the basis of a presumption in favour of disclosing information in so far as it is legally and constitutionally possible to do so. It will provide clarity on the information that can be provided and the circumstances in which it can be provided.

The development of the Bill has presented complex constitutional and policy challenges in the delicate balancing of the right of an adopted person to his or her identity information, on the one hand, and the right to privacy of his or her birth parent, on the other. The Bill will provide that the Adoption Authority of Ireland will have overall responsibility for the safeguarding of adoption records, including information on informal adoptions and persons whose birth was incorrectly registered. All adoption records, currently held in a number of locations, will be transferred to the custody of the authority. The Bill will provide that the records are to be indexed and a searchable electronic database of the records will be created. The authority is to ensure all adoption records will be kept in a suitable and secure location, with access to be provided for a person to view his or her own records, where he or she has an entitlement under the Bill. The Bill will also provides that the concealment, destruction or falsification of a record will be an offence.

The Bill will provide for the Child and Family Agency to operate an information and tracing service. Where both parties consent, the agency will facilitate contact between the two parties. It will provide for structured and regulated access to information and tracing services for those affected by adoption, subject to informal arrangements or wrongful registrations.

The Bill will set out the information that can be provided and the circumstances in which it can be provided for adopted persons, birth parents, adoptive parents on behalf on an adopted child and relatives. It will also make provision for the release of information to persons who were subject to informal arrangements or wrongful registrations. A key provision of the Bill is to provide for a scheme under which the information required to obtain a birth certificate may be provided for an adopted person, subject to certain conditions. A copy of an adopted person's adoption order will also be provided, subject to the same conditions.

The Bill will also provide for information sharing between birth parents and adoptive parents in the case of a child who was adopted where both parties agree. It was originally intended to include provisions in the Bill for an information and tracing service to be provided for persons who were subject to an intercountry adoption. However, as work on the Bill progressed, a significant number of policy questions arose. They require careful consideration in the context of the 1993 Hague Convention on the Protection of Children and Co-operation in respect of Intercountry Adoption. A detailed analysis of the differing systems operating in sending countries is required. In addition, it is noted that in many such cases there is little additional information for persons subject to intercountry adoption over and above that in the possession of adoptive parents. Consequently, the provisions on the provision of information for persons subject to intercountry adoption were removed from the Bill. I am committed to developing policy and introducing legislation on this discrete matter as soon as possible.

The Joint Committee on Health and Children, in its pre-legislative scrutiny of the general scheme of the Bill, examined the heads of the Bill in November 2015. Following this examination, the committee indicated that there was a strong consensus among committee members that "the heads of Bill contain a considerable number of positive measures" and that the Bill would represent an "important milestone in adoption reform". In these circumstances, I respectfully believe the Deputy's concerns can be addressed most effectively by the pending legislation. A draft of the Bill was circulated to Departments on Friday last, 11 November, for observations. It is hoped to submit the Bill to the Government on 22 November to seek its approval to publish it. It will be published on 25 November, subject to Government approval. For these reasons, I do not intend to accept the proposed amendment.

The Deputy's final point was that representatives of adoptive persons had been invited to express their views during the pre-legislative scrutiny of the Bill undertaken by the committee. The report put together by the committee made a number of recommendations which had been put forward by stakeholders. It informed amendments to the general scheme of the Bill.