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

I will just speak to amendments Nos. 13 to 25, inclusive, given that Deputy Funchion indicated her intention to withdraw amendments Nos. 11 and 12. I do not propose to accept these amendments, primarily because we believe these definitions are already clearly contained within the existing definitions in the Bill. Like the Deputies, we also wish to see as broad a range of categories of information as possible provided to adopted people, people who were subject to illegal birth registrations and those who were boarded out. That is why the definition of care information provided in the Bill is expansive. It was drafted in consultation with organisations familiar with the types of records that would be held by these institutions.

Many of the proposed amendments seek to capture types of information already provided for in the Bill under other categories of information: birth, early life, medical information and provided items. The type of information these amendments propose to address is already guaranteed for release under the legislation. For example, the information specified in amendments Nos. 14, 19, 20, 23 and 24 is already explicitly covered under the definition of early life information. The information specified in amendments Nos. 18, 21, 23, 24 and 25 is explicitly covered by the definition of care information. The information specified in amendment No. 13 is specifically captured under birth information. The information specified in amendment No. 14 is set out under medical information. The information specified in amendment No. 16 is already covered across all categories of information, birth, early life, care, medical information and provided items.

It is not possible to support amendment No. 22 because we believe the wording of the amendment is more restrictive than what is currently provided for under the legislation. As such, we do not want to restrict the type of information available.