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

In response to the question by Deputies Bacik and Ward, if somebody chooses not to participate in the processes set out in the legislation, he or she continues to have the right to submit an essay or application under GDPR, as anybody has. That right remains with them but the right of access to information under GDPR is not absolute in the same way it will be under this legislation. A balancing test under Article 15(4) of GDPR still applies. We are providing for the absolute right to access information in all situations in this legislation. To address Deputy Cairns' question, that is why we are having this legislation. We are taking away that discretion of the data controller to refuse somebody access to his or her information. That is why this legislation is necessary.

It is really important that we address the argument in terms of what Deputy Cairns said, which is that this desire to protect the constitutional rights of parents is not based in reality. It is based in reality. Right now, we have a national adoption contact preference register. Approximately 4,500 parents whose children were adopted have signed on to that and the vast majority of them are seeking contact with their children. Only 1% or 99 people have signed a no-contact preference on the existing national adoption contact preference register. I take the number of parents who do not want contact with their children from that and that is not all; that is a portion of people who have signed this. It is tiny. They are still rights holders, however. Each of those 99 people still have a right to exercise their constitutional right to privacy. If they decide that they do not want contact with the child they gave up for adoption, that is their right.

Deputy Cairns asked where this came from. She said many different groups came in and spoke before the committee. Absolutely, and I have spoken with them too. However, these women do not want to be known. They are not going to appear before the Oireachtas joint committee for whatever reason because that identifies them. Again, it comes back to the history of adoption in this country and the secrecy that surrounds it. These women continue to exist in secret. We must remember that the information session will only apply where a parent has signed a no-contact preference. Based on what we are seeing from the existing national adoption contact preference register, it will only be a tiny proportion of the overall number of applications under this legislation where an information session is required. In those situations, however, it is an exercise of a constitutional right. It is the exercise of an individual who has proactively decided that he or she wants to provide some protection of his or her anonymity. The fact is that they do not come into the Oireachtas joint committee or form advocacy groups. We cannot let their desire and need for secrecy eliminate them from this conversation. They do exist. Their existence is demonstrated by the existing no-contact preference register. I have received letters from women who have set out their concerns to me as parents. That is what we are trying to achieve here. We are trying to achieve a recognition of their constitutional right to privacy but doing so in such a way that in every situation, the adopted person gets full access to his or her information.