Barry Andrews (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

My point is that considerable work has been done on this type of legislation. That such legislation was introduced underlines my point that it was always our intention to introduce a separate Bill. The legislation before us consolidates existing adoption legislation and transposes into Irish law the Hague Convention.

I agree with the point made about preserving records. In recent days, developments in the National Archive have shown that the preservation of papers is difficult.

On obtaining birth certificates, the Adoption Board's annual report for 2005 indicated that 95% of applications for birth certificates were granted by the board. In the case of the most recent annual report for 2008, although not all applications for birth certificates submitted in 2008 had been processed by the time the annual report was made, as far as I recall from examining the matter a couple of weeks ago, only two of approximately 100 applications were rejected in that year. We must be careful in this respect given that birth certificates are provided in the vast majority of cases. The Adoption Board can judge whether to proceed on the basis of the criteria set down by the Supreme Court in the 1998 case, which was an assessment and balancing of constitutional rights. The only way to circumvent the court's judgment is by way of a referendum. To go beyond the parameters of the 1998 interpretation would require more than legislation.

On medical records, while I stand to be corrected on this issue, I have never seen a form which asks for details of family medical history, in other words, the medical history of one's parents. I have filled out many forms which asked whether I have this, that or the other condition.

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