Ms Patricia Carey:

We have instances of just less than 10% where a birth mother has given the name of a birth father that was not correct. This may have been on advisement or she may have had difficulty in naming the birth father. Ms Traynor mentioned that in cases of incest or rape there is a difficulty. In terms of statistics, of the 14,000 people registered on the national contact adoption register, approximately 140 birth parents have registered for no contact. We have more than 900 adoptees who have registered for no contact. There are instances where birth parents wish to have information on their children who do not wish to have contact with them. Quite often we talk of birth parents who want no contact but there is an equally large cohort of adopted adults who have indicated that. We are acutely aware of recognising both adult adoptees and birth parents who wish to register for no contact. Historically, in the 1950s, 1960s and up to the 1970s, there were cases where incorrect information was on the adoption file, deliberately or inadvertently.