Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 2 March 2022

Select Committee on Children and Youth Affairs

Birth Information and Tracing Bill 2022: Committee Stage

Photo of Thomas PringleThomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I stress the importance of this series of amendments. There is quite a lot here. The amendments govern the provision of information. It is telling that adopted people feel they have to put forward these amendments. I am concerned about the Bill on that basis. I know the Minister will say the legislation is comprehensive and covers all options but we will not know that until afterwards. The problem is that we will not know until it is too late whether they are all covered. That is really worrying.

I agree with amendment No. 26. It would be right to delete the whole lot. All the amendments in the group are relevant and important. They reflect the information it is felt has to be included in the section to ensure all the information and all of the options are covered. Information is vital for adopted people. Their whole lives are lived with a lack of information. Amendment No. 29 refers to letters, cards or other materials placed in an adoption file by the relevant person's father or other relatives. It states people should have access to this information. Clearly there have been instances where people have not been given this information. This is why the amendment has been tabled. It is directly from experiences that people have had. Amendment No. 30 refers to letters, cards or other material placed in the adoption file by the relevant person's mother. There is a reason for these amendments. It is important and the Minister should take the amendments on board and include them in the legislation.

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