Ms Rhoda Mac Manus:

Members will have noticed we included in our opening statement something pretty mind-blowing, even in our opinion, which was that there should be a referendum on the right to information. This has been talked about for decades. The right to privacy has been used as a shield to prevent information getting out to the public. It was really to protect the State. That is what it was really about because if people got their information they would realise the wrongs that had been done to them. We feel the present Attorney General has not properly explained why he now holds a different position to previous Attorneys General, in that he is saying it is possible for people to get their birth certificates. He has never addressed the issue of our right to our child's adoption certificate but we have always felt as an organisation that there should be parity of esteem.

The way we have seen adoption is that there is a hierarchy of power and the powerless person in this was always the adopted person. The person with less power and less agency was the natural mother and the people who had more choice were the adoptive parents. We feel that hierarchy of rights should follow. As we were constrained for so long and silenced for so long we think the least that can be done is for the right to information to be extended to us as mothers as well. At the point a person reaches 18 years of age and is entitled to the birth certificate which will give them information on their original name then we should be entitled to our child's adoption certificate which will give us their new name. When you think of it, for all those years we think of our children by the name we gave them. It is very hard, when we find out the new name, to get used to that. The earlier we can find out the new name the easier it will be for us to get used it. It is also an emotional thing. It is a preparation. It is a preparation for the fact we will be meeting someone who has grown up into adulthood under other people's influence and it will help us with accepting that fact.