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

I hear what the Deputy is saying about the constituent she spoke to who wants her history. I believe that the information and tracing legislation we have committed to providing at rapid pace is the key element in giving people their history and in answering for so many people the questions of their birth, parents and early life information. That is why the information and tracing legislation is central to the Government's response to the commission. I believe by doing that we will meet the requirement of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child to which the Deputy referred.

Like her, I was not in the House when the terms of reference of the commission were set out. I understand that originally the commission related to the 14 mother and baby homes and four county homes that were picked. I gather they were picked because they were the homes where it was believed the greatest number of full records and files were available. One issue we have been clear about in our response and in the consideration of the interdepartmental group is that all survivors of county homes are considered to part of what the Government is responding to. This ties in to the second point made by the Deputy about the start of recognition and her concerns about the 1973 cut-off point. The Government took an important decision when it set out the action points. The decision was that the interdepartmental group would not be limited to simply looking at the three categories that the commission set out. It can recommend the provision of redress for a wider category. We recognised that concern held by the Deputy about the use of that arbitrary cut-off time.

Another important point relates to what we voted to protect last year. When the commission wrote to my predecessor in January, it proposed to delete the database that links mothers and their children. We voted to protect that database and the related records. When SARs come to my Department, in less than one month the officials in my Department will be able to use that database to provide information for people who have been denied information up to this point. I believe that is significant.