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

I recognise the Deputy's concern about this issue, on which we have much work to do. The exact route forward is worthy of consideration. As I said, I have met individuals in these circumstances and acknowledge and empathise with the situation they are trying to address. It is appalling to sit in a room and meet people who say the forms were filled in illegally and incorrectly and that they are at a loss in knowing how to trace information on themselves, the scale of which is still open to question. I have previously said that records on adoptions and illegal birth registrations are held by a number of agencies such as the HSE, the Adoption Authority of Ireland, private adoption authorities, maternity hospitals, private individuals and other sources. Information held by the adoption authorities is primarily on adoptions which took place before the Adoption Act 1952. There is the tracing service and we are bringing forward the legislation. I will ask the Joint Committee on Health and Children to discuss the issue of information and tracing. The issue the Deputy mentioned, as to what to do in the case of illegal adoptions, might be an appropriate one to consider in the first discussion.

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