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

I will make two points in response to the Deputy's questions. I will speak about the legislation in a moment. I take the Deputy's point about work done by voluntary organisations. I have met them and am very happy to work with them but we have a national adoption contact preference register. That is the best place for mothers and for adoptees who want to trace their families. They can put their information onto the national adoption contact preference register. To date, the cumulative total on that is only 7,426 adopted persons and 3,312 relatives applying to register. One can contrast that with the number of files I have mentioned today, 25,000, which is not the total number of files. We certainly need to ensure that everybody who wants to trace and make contact with their families is at the very least applying through the HSE or the Adoption Authority of Ireland to have their names on the national adoption contact preference register because that is the first step.

As regards the legislation, I have very serious legal advice that suggests that retrospective information is not constitutional in this country.

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