Mary Seery Kearney (Fine Gael)
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I must make it clear that no one wants to deny identity. As a member of this committee, I have come through the birth, information and tracing legislation and sat with very many groups and individuals over the last year. There is no desire to deny identity and to have that full transparency. However, we have a difficulty when it comes to retrospectively dealing with children who are already in existence. Having a framework is very important as we go forward, but we need to have this. We need to deal fairly with people who went out and operated within the legal framework that existed in other countries yet now find themselves in Ireland. Their children need to be recognised. I think we will be obliged to have a transition period which deals with that retrospectively and then sets up a framework that incentivises transparency of identity and is transparent when it comes to the conception circumstances of any child. In my experience of groups, there is no desire to withhold that information. I appreciate that there are some countries and clinics where that is not possible. I believe we can put systems in place to require the affidavit and the information in line with the systems that already exist.