Erin McGreehan (Fianna Fail)
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I confirm I am in Leinster House. The Minister is very welcome today and I thank him for his continuous engagement with all of the work we do on the committee. I will pick up on a number of issues. As the Minister has said, language is very important. Over the past while, since newspapers published articles about the terminology the Minister is proposing to change, some very upset people have contacted me about the move away from using the term "birth mother". Mothers are very upset about this. To say that giving birth could be reductive or harmful is quite upsetting to many women.

If the wording is changed to "natural mother", it implies there are unnatural mothers. That is a really dangerous connotation we could start to derive from it. There is no such thing as an "unnatural mother". I find the concept very upsetting, as do the mothers I have spoken to on both sides. While birth mothers, who give birth, rightly feel they are mothers, it is objectionable that adoptive mothers could be somehow classed as "unnatural". I appreciate that the Minister has met some mothers who hold his position but there are many mothers who are genuinely upset over this. What engagement has the Department had? It seems we are moving away from international norms on this. For over 30 years, "birth mother" has been the general term given. It is deemed as the most genuine and realistic.

In our consultations and discussions on this legislation, the reference to the meeting has arisen. How has the Department deemed this to be the best way to balance the sets of rights? How does it respond to the view that it is possibly another barrier to getting the birth certificate and records, and also to the view that there is not unfettered access? How would the meeting be conducted? How onerous would it be for the individual concerned? If someone is very much against going to one of the interviews, is that the end of the story for her in that she would just not get the relevant information? I am curious about that.

Many of the topics have been discussed by the Minister. I would be very interested in hearing about the plans of the Department to have a centralised agency for adoption. Is there any process — I am aware it is not a matter for this legislation — that the Department is examining? We are all aware that centralised records would represent the best approach, considering that we are dealing with historical issues in this regard.

On illegal birth registrations, will those individuals who have been illegally adopted or, rather, not adopted be entitled to any emotional or psychological support? Is the legislation going to assist them in finding their truth?