Dan Neville (Limerick West, Fine Gael)

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this Bill. I will not discuss the difficulties others have experienced. However, I wish to raise an issue which has been brought to my attention by adopted people, namely, the availability of counselling and assistance when they are introduced to their natural parents. I spoke to a man who had successfully traced his natural mother and was introduced to her with the State's assistance. However, he was left at that stage and no assistance or advice was available to either party to guide them through the difficulties and trauma they experienced. He said it was a difficult time for natural parents and adopted children alike. The man sought help, assistance and advice during the period. Although his case had a successful outcome, he was emotional about the needs of adopted people when they seek to identify and develop a relationship with their natural parents.

He was strongly in favour of some assistance or counselling being made available by people experienced in the area who understand the process a person goes through when they are first introduced to their natural parents, when they begin to explore different aspects of their lives and when the relationship develops. This is because it is natural that difficulties will arise between two people with different experiences who are linked together biologically.

My response was that there are many areas in need of counselling services, of which this is one. The area is neglected by the State and the relevant Departments. To be fair, it may not be the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform which deals with this but rather the Department of Health and Children. However, this is a real live human issue which arises for many children, especially those who were adopted ten, 15, 20, 30 or 40 years ago and go on to meet their natural families. The numbers will probably decline because there is more openness between natural families and adoptive parents and their children. I know of families which have adopted abroad and have periodically taken the adopted children back to their natural parents to maintain some bond with them.

Adopted people beginning to research their natural parents should be trained to deal with the difficulties they will experience just by virtue of the fact of their making a decision to go to the State authorities to seek such information. There is also a difficulty in tracing people. I know a person who went to Dublin to trace his mother only to be informed that the mother had not consented and the name was not available. When the person went to the agency in Mallow he got the name and the mother was anxious to meet him. The point is that he went to an agency in Dublin which gave him information that the mother was not available, yet when he went to another agency, she was. There needs to be an examination of the co-ordination of information in that area. I would like to raise that issue at a later stage with the relevant section of the Department.

I recognise that it may not be an issue for the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform but I would like to use the opportunity to raise this important issue. Some adoptees feel that the person dealing with them should be adopted and that only an adopted person can understand the feelings and the emotions of an adoptee researching his or her natural mother and then meeting them and developing a relationship with them. They have spoken about having a support group of people who are adopted and have gone through that who would help others through it. Perhaps there is a way of making some information available. I do not have an answer to this. Perhaps we could have a counselling service that has researched, experienced and understands the various stages an adopted person takes from the time that he or she decides to research, meet and develop a relationship with his or her natural mother. Difficulties are experienced in that, both for the adopted person and the biological mother. I have not extended that to the difficulties for adoptive parents.

From my understanding, when a relationship develops with the natural mother and comes to an understanding and a good relationship, the adopted child identifies with the parents who adopted them because of the natural bonding that took place over the years. The relationship and bonding that existed will always put the adoptive parents first in terms of how an adopted person relates to both adoptive and natural parents. People are in need of help in this area. The Department of Health and Children should examine that and reply to us so that we can inform adopted people of the assistance the State can give to such people.

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