Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

If one wanted to address that issue comprehensively, it would have to be done through a referendum on privacy issues. The children's referendum was about putting the best interest of the child at the heart of decisions, about hearing the views of the child and about ensuring a broader group of children could be adopted. It was to ensure that children who were in long-term fostering were eligible for adoption. However, this is a different constitutional issue. Once the issues relating to the referendum were finalised, the principles agreed would ensure that those constitutional criteria would apply across a range of cases.

There is clearly a separate constitutional issue in regard to privacy and the balance we have been discussing. I do not have a date for the completion of the Bill as I am awaiting legal clarification on the Bill currently. However, I assure the Deputy a great deal of work has been done on the issue the Deputy raised about the maintaining of records and ensuring they are preserved carefully and on ensuring the Adoption Authority will have the overall responsibility to ensure the safety of and access to records.

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