Clare Daly (Dublin North, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

I would like to thank the Minister but her response is quite worrying in some ways. The good thing is that the heads of the Bill will be going to the committee and I hope the Minister can given some indication of when that might happen. She seems to be adamant that the opinion being given, on what I would still call an alleged right to privacy, has some right way above the rights of children to their identity, which I cannot see. Maybe I will be enlightened at the committee but I cannot see the basis of it. The IO'T v. B case concerned a fostering arrangement.

I note that 11 years after the judgment, when in opposition, the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Shatter - who we have been hearing in recent days is the foremost legal expert of modern times - deemed that the issue was not rocket science. He said it had been addressed in neighbouring jurisdictions and that someone who was adopted across the Border in Northern Ireland had substantially greater rights than someone had in this State, and that it could be addressed here. Maybe his advice could be sought on this matter as well.

The difficulty is that the judgment in that case made the assumption that a natural parent would not want to be contacted. That does not have any basis in reality, however, because most of the adoptions were forced adoptions. Some of those from the past were not proper adoptions at all. All experience shows that most parents do want to link up with their children later on. When they do not initially, it can be overcome and other measures can be put in place then.

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