Mary Seery Kearney (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

With respect, the impediments to this legislation thus far have always been around privacy, albeit that is the wrong handle. This legislation is about ensuring people have the right to know who they are and that there should not be anonymity. That is the whole point in having access to the information, and it is absolutely right that that should happen. I see that I am being misinterpreted. What I see the legislation doing is attempting to vindicate the rights of those who do not wish to have contact by providing them with counselling and saying there is going to be an information session. That is what is being proposed at the moment as being sufficient to vindicate the right that the birth mother has, and we are here to discuss that. However, that is a difficulty. There is a hierarchy here. There are people who have lived in anonymity and that is being taken away from them, rightly so and for all the right reasons, but there is a consequence that the State must try to meet while it is taking away that right of anonymity. I am not saying the right of anonymity was correct and it certainly was not, but that is what is currently in the Bill and that is what needs to be addressed. Is that sufficient? Ms Steed is saying it is not sufficient and it is disrespectful to adopted people, and I hear that, but we need to explore it and discuss it.