Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Sherlock. He raised many valid points that we will tease out across this discussion. As regards that legislative process, I believe the Deputy is right. We need to see the commission's report. That is why we have committed and put the resources in place to get it published as quickly as possible and every legislative step we take will be influenced by that. I agree with him on that matter. I would think the first legislation will be that relating to Tuam and the burials there. I hope to be in a position to bring a memo to Government in November in that regard to get the heads of Bill agreed. As soon as I get the heads of Bill agreed by Government, I will immediately write to the Chair of this committee and ask that she seek to allocate time for pre-legislative scrutiny. That is the first piece of the legislative jigsaw I see coming to this committee.

I conceptualised the information and tracing legislation as a distinct item of legislation. Last Friday, I met with the Adoption Rights Alliance. I met with Dr. Katherine O'Donnell, Ms Claire McGettrick and Dr. Maeve O'Rourke to discuss this particular issue. They see information and tracing as being linked to the issue of the archive and being dealt with in the form of an omnibus Bill. I had envisioned it like that before. Their draft Bill has been sent to my Department and we are reviewing it to see if that would be the best way to go or whether it is better to divide it into discrete areas as well. That is being actively considered. Either way, however, I want to see work on this being done in 2021. I am absolutely determined to ensure that the issue of providing early birth information for adopted people and wider survivors of institutional abuse will be a key priority for my Department next year.