Mr. Conor O'Mahony:

It could be envisaged under the Bill in its current form that some records would be in the possession of the Adoption Authority of Ireland, some in the possession of Tusla and some in the possession of adoption societies, and there could be many such societies. There could be records in quite a number of geographic locations and under the auspices of different organisations. The process of tracing often involves cross-referencing different records and files, such as an adoption order the adoption authority has with paperwork held by an adoption society or by Tusla that was formerly with an adoption society. There may be further cross-referencing necessary with the General Register Office.

If one was designing a service like this from scratch to be the most efficient service one could provide, one would not design it like that. One would not set it up with multiple actors and many locations. One would try to put things in one location as much as possible to take out the unnecessary links in the chain. The only interest is how we can make it more efficient to avoid the delays we have already heard about. Nobody wants to see adopted persons waiting for two years to get a response to a tracing request. If this is to be a fresh start, as Senator McGahon said earlier, the opportunity is to bring these records together and make the process easier for everyone.