Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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As I read them, what this group of amendments is seeking to do is to remove the requirement to provide the relevant medical information to the relevant medical practitioner, who will then provide it to the relevant person. I see that as what this set of amendments aims to do.

Turning to the Deputy's point concerning consistency in this context, she is right that it is vital and that is why there is the ability to publish guidelines under this legislation and for those guidelines to be revised if elements of inconsistency are seen to be creeping into the application of the legislation. This aspect is fundamentally important. A later set of amendments seeks to limit the power to issue guidelines and I will be opposing those as well. Guidelines are the manner in which we can see the achievement of the required consistency.

This set of amendments is concerned with deleting the second level of protection in respect of interference with the privacy rights of a parent. The first level of protection is the provision that the information requested is relevant information about the adopted person's health and the second level protection is that the information is conveyed to the medical practitioner. We have been advised that these are the necessary measures to balance the significant interference in the privacy rights of the parent. It is worth repeating that we are giving the adopted person a legal right to access the medical information of another person, without that other person's consent. It is a big step. It must be taken, but it is a big step and some level of protection must be put in place. This aspect of the legislation is one of those protections and therefore I cannot accept amendments seeking to delete it.