Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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The debate is touching on the important issue of the degree of overlap between different categories of information. For people who were adopted or held in care, we tried to capture in the report that early life and care information encompasses so much about a person's medical history, from vaccine trials to, for example, abuse, genetic background and circumstances of birth. It may be difficult in practice to distinguish between those categories of information. That is the issue here.

We sought in the report to ensure that people would have access to and be provided with all information about themselves. That is part of respecting and giving effect to a person's right to identity. It would cover not just names of their birth parents, but also all the other early life and care information. The Minister is also trying to capture it in that definition but the amendment seeks to ensure that all that information is covered and the person is not inadvertently blocked from receiving particular information because he or she thinks it is in one category when, as the Minister said, it could be covered under early life and care information rather than medical information.