Mary Seery Kearney (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am in Leinster House. I thank the Chairman and apologise; she came to me quicker than I was expecting.

I wish to address the issue of the birth mothers and the balancing of rights here. Very rightly and appropriately, this Bill is creating a hierarchy and establishing that a person's right to his or her identity, and all the information surrounding that from his or her early life, should be available to him or her. Anything held really should be made available to that person. That is right. It is the most important right here, which needs to be vindicated; having a right of access does that.

This Bill also seeks to vindicate that right to privacy of the birth mother who has expressed a no-contact preference. I see and read it differently from the manner in which this is expressed in the witnesses' submissions. I note that there is an obligation on the Oireachtas to produce a law that is constitutional and in being constitutional, it must sufficiently vindicate that right. The very minimum of that, therefore, is to say that if we are going to remove a person's right to privacy or a right that person believes he or she has, we are going to provide that person with counselling if he or she prefers to have no contact. We will also oblige a meeting with the person who is getting that information, acknowledging very respectfully - I am very mindful of everything here - that this is someone's information and right to knowing who he or she is. The information session, however, is to vindicate that the constitutional right to privacy has been covered and the counselling then is to ensure there is support. That is the very minimum that would equate to being sufficient for this particular piece of legislation to be constitutional.

I have questions for the witnesses on how they would ensure the constitutionality of the privacy portion of this right. Perhaps Barnardos can also assist us in with its experiences. I have had conversations with people who have never told anyone they have had a child, except in the absolute privacy and confidentiality of their discussions with me under a presumption of anonymity. I believe that we need to address that. I would appreciate the witnesses' replies.