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

I would like to have an idea of the timescale for the passage of the Bill through its various stages. What is the Minister's starting point? To me, the starting point has to be the rights of children to their identity. If there are blockages to that, allegedly because of constitutional reasons or whatever, and if ultimately we say that is the case, then that should be addressed. I do not see a right to privacy being an absolute right in this case. In my opinion, the right to privacy is a waivable right.

Most civilised societies have a system of tracing which is perfectly straightforward and open and completely different from the set-up we have here. If there are impediments we must move to take them out. Sometimes, the way in which the Adoption Act has provided for a permanent severing of the relationship between the natural parent and the child has been unhelpful, particularly for unmarried mothers and their non-marital children, and this is a throwback. We should be rather open in how we change things.

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