Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Let us be honest about it - it is not satisfactory. There is no reason reforms of adoption law should be introduced that do not include the right to information and to trace. The Bill arises from the passage of the children's rights referendum in 2012. However, there was the issue of the right to information and to trace long before the referendum was passed, but it now seems to be the plan to pass over it again. Who are the vested interests who are preventing us from having a modern regime that will allow people access to information? It seems there are rights for everybody in Ireland except for adopted persons. The issue is passed over again and again.

The piecemeal reform of adoption law should end now. The Bill should be expanded to also deal with the rights to information and to trace. Adopted persons have waited long enough. That is why the Labour Party will be moving amendments to the legislation on Committee Stage to introduce a right to information for all adopted persons, including those who were informally adopted and those whose births were not properly registered. This may be where the worry lies. We know from a huge number of individual stories that there were informal adoptions and changes in data. There are many people who will never be able to obtain their records because, unfortunately, the institutions involved, the organisations or nursing homes from which they were adopted do not seem to have maintained records. I hope the Minister will accept the amendments and not make adopted persons wait any longer for a very basic fundamental human right.

I welcome the Bill in its role in implementing the changes brought about by the children's rights referendum, which will ensure a child's best wishes will be central to each and every adoption case. The Minister's own statement speaks for itself.

The Bill also addresses the bizarre situation where, if a child's step-parent wishes to adopt him or her, the other parent - the birth parent - must also adopt. When this has happened up to now, it has been a source of bewilderment for the adults and the families involved and it has often been deeply upsetting to the children involved owing to the connotations it carries. I am glad to see that issue finally being addressed. It is welcome that it is now being remedied. With the passage of the Bill, the birth parent will continue to be the parent and the step-parent will become the adoptive parent.

Another welcome aspect of the new Bill will allow civil partners and cohabitees the opportunity to adopt should they wish to do so. I welcome the removal of the archaic ban in current law which prohibits married parents from placing a child for adoption. In the past this has created obstacles for many children whose parents are married but who are in long-term foster placements or institutional care.

There is a wide range of views on adoption and its appropriateness and there are discussions on what is a very intimate, personal matter. To me, it is almost always better if, in a good adoption system, a child who might otherwise spend his or her life in an institutional setting has the opportunity to be adopted by a loving family who will incorporate him or her into the family and, in many cases, give meaning to his or her life. That is preferable to leaving a child in an institution or successive foster placements. For many children a long-term foster care family is their family, but as we know, when children leave at 18 years of age, sometimes they have to start life again on their own.

There have been approximately 50,000 adoptions since the passage of the original adoption Act in the early 1950s. As I said, not everybody wishes to trace. That is a personal choice people make and I respect it. Prior to the 1950s, there were many long-term foster care and informal arrangements. I recall people like Maureen O'Carroll, the first female Labour Party Deputy, speaking eloquently in this House about adoption, the need for proper regulation and the introduction of the adoption Acts in the early 1950s. When one looks at the three parties in the adoption triangle - the person who has been adopted, the birth parents and their extended families and relations and the adoptive parents and their extended families and relations - one can easily see how at least 500,000 people in Ireland are in some way affected or have somebody in their family or wider family circle who have either given up a child, have themselves been adopted or adopted a child. As a society, we placed extraordinary numbers of people in institutions for adoption, as well as in mental health institutions.

6 o’clock

I do not know if it was the impact of the Great Irish Famine that made this such an extraordinary legacy feature of Irish life during the 20th century.

We need the denial of human rights in relation to adoption tracing to be addressed now. We need not put it on the long finger. As this is the first Bill the Minister has introduced, I point out to her that the legislative programme is very long. When she gets a Bill, it will be a long time before she gets another one because there is a queue ahead of her. Deputy Jan O'Sullivan and I are very familiar with this. It is why I ask the Minister and the House to agree that we sort out this issue within the confines of the Bill rather than look for separate legislation. Given the likely three-year lifespan of this Dáil, we are unlikely ever to see it.

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