Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick East, Labour)

I am bewildered by that answer which does not provide clarification, particularly the last point. Let me first deal with a factual point. Amendment No. 86 is in this group of amendments. That amendment states:

In page 65, between lines 24 and 25, to insert the following:

"(e) promoting the development of services to assist persons who were adopted and persons who have placed children for adoption to trace one another;".

Tracing is in this group of amendments. I accept it is dealt with in other amendments also.

We are not saying that any of this is compulsory. We are saying we want to enable people who want to trace and enable people who have been adopted to get the information they seek. It is not just adopted persons or natural parents who have approached us on these issues. Barnardos, the Council for Irish Adoption Agencies, the Children's Rights Alliance and the Ombudsman for Children have all argued for the right to information and tracing. There is wide acceptance that we need to provide for this right. I know the Minister of State argues that he wants to introduce separate legislation. What Deputy Burton has said is true. There is no way that will be achieved within the next two years of the life of the Government. I was first elected to this House in 1998 and at that stage there was an intention to introduce legislation on the exchange of soft information where children were considered to be at risk. That legislation is still on the list of promised legislation. With the best will in the world, I do not believe the Minister of State will get these provisions into law unless he accepts the amendments presented today. The amendments are presented in a way that avoids being prescriptive about the mechanisms that need to be used in this regard. They are very general enabling provisions. I cannot see any reason for the Minister of State not to accept them.

We live in a very different time from the time when women were put into Magdalene Laundries in order not to cause scandal. We locked away people who got pregnant out of wedlock. We live in a very different world. If the Minister of State can provide for what we request he will find that practically nobody would feel he was doing something wrong.

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