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

Amendment No. 102 proposes to delete section (2)(2) that reads:

For the purpose of the definition of “care information” and “early life information” in subsection (1), the period referred to in the definition shall be deemed to end - (a) in the case of an adopted person, on the date on which he or she became an adopted person, and

(b) in the case of a person who is, or has been, the subject of an incorrect birth registration, on the date on which the person named as mother and, if applicable, father, in the entry in the register of births concerned assumed the role of parents in relation to the person and treated that person as her or their lawful child.

The function of this subsection is to define the period of time during which the definitions of care information and early life information apply. It is included for accuracy and precision in the terms of drafting. The reason I cannot accept the amendment is because it would delete the section entirely and offers no substitution or alternative for it. In the case of an adopted person, this time period ends where they were adopted. In the case of someone who was the subject of an illegal birth registration the period ends at the time their social parents took over responsibility for them.

The legislation that we have here is primarily aimed at supporting relevant persons to exercise their right to identity through access to information relating to the origin of their birth and early life and for individuals affected, this can only be fully inserted and achieved through clear access via statutory pathway to the information that is on the historic files. We know this information will guarantee that for the first time. The amendment, however, seeks to remove this focus and instead extend the period until the relevant person is 18 years old. It is important that this amendment will have no practical purpose because if a person is adopted at the age of 12 years there will be no further information held by adoption agencies about them because they will now be with their adopted parents. Saying that there will be early life information about them and extending that up to the age of 18 years would not work in this situation. There will only be early life and care information about them for the length of time that they are in an institution. That ends at the time they are either adopted or, as we know in certain cases, the subject of an illegal birth registration. That is why we do not feel that this is correct. If this amendment is followed through, a lacuna will be left open for no valuable purpose.