Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)

I again appeal to the Minister of State to look on these amendments favourably. For a significant body of people these represent some of the most important issues for them at this point in their lives. In trying to understand where other people are coming from we sometimes need to pause for a moment and imagine ourselves in their shoes, and try to understand that very strong inner need to know just who we are. That is not a major difficulty for anybody here to try to understand. I do not believe that I, the Minister of State or anybody else here could go through life knowing that he or she was adopted without wanting to know who he or she was.

I refer to the issues of knowledge vis-À-vis health. There is a footprint in the sand of time in terms of our people on this island, the neighbouring island and across parts of Europe that tells us much about who we are and from where we have come. There are significant high incidences of various conditions in the Irish physical make-up, including presentations of haemochromatosis and coeliac disease. These are markers in time that many of our people have inherited and would not understand why they feel so fatigued and have such great difficulty in digesting certain prepared foods. All of these matters are critical, including information on who a person is, who his or her parents were, what they experienced and know to have occurred in their respective families, and are very likely form part of what that person is. These are important issues for people today.

It is therefore very important for us to recognise that this is not just a need, as I indicated earlier, but a right that should be included in this instance. Just as I argued in an earlier amendment about children's voices being heard, for people with this strong and very understandable need, it is their right. I warrant that this legislation is the last chance the Minister of State will have as Minister of State with responsibility for children and youth affairs. It is most unlikely that after the next general election he will still be in that position regardless of the make-up of Government here. We do not see people continuing in their respective portfolios, even if it were the electorate's choice to allow them all to continue - pray God they do not. However, that is a different issue.

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