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

I will address amendments Nos. 117 and 146. These amendments would insert a clause into sections 6 and 10. The amendments require that where no information is available, upon application by an affected person, the authority must seize all records and conduct an investigation into what transpired. Unfortunately, I cannot accept these amendments. Under section 63 of the Civil Registration Act 2004, a person can apply to the register to correct a record and under section 65 of the same Act, the Ard-Chláraitheoir is empowered to conduct an inquiry to correct registration of a life event. What is being provided for here does not need to be undertaken, especially on a mandatory basis, where a person may not wish for further investigation. An adopted person subject to an illegal birth registration may not wish for such an investigation. A person who was the subject of an illegal birth registration may not wish their parents - the people they have seen as their parents all their lives - to be subject to an investigation, which would be mandatory under this provision. It is completely out of the ordinary when compared to what we have been looking at - the idea of a mandatory investigation without any understanding of its size and scope, what it would do and what its consequences would be. I cannot support this amendment.