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

I will deal with amendment No. 164 separately.

My response is the same as that to the previous set of amendments. The Bill provides for copies of records to be supplied to anybody who applies under this legislation. The proposed provision is not necessary because the goal, one that we share, that people get full copies of their records and not just information is already provided for in the Bill.

Amendment No 164 seeks to put an obligation on a body to seek out records that it does not have. If Tusla does not have information about a relevant person when the person applies, this proposed provision would place a statutory obligation on Tusla to look for that information elsewhere. Tusla's focus needs to be on getting the information it has and providing that to adopted people. Thousands of people will seek that information. To provide a statutory obligation on Tusla to look for information it does not have and which it does not know even exists is incredibly uncertain. To make this a statutory obligation, when there is no certainty that the obligation could ever be fulfilled, is not the best use of Tusla's resources. For this reason, I cannot accept this group of amendments.