Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Work on drafting the adoption (information and tracing) Bill is under way and I am committed to publishing it as early as possible after the summer recess. The heads and general scheme of the Bill were published in July 2015. It was then referred to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health and Children for pre-legislative scrutiny, and the committee published its report in November 2015, as I know the Deputy is aware.

Following consideration of the report, a revised scheme was developed which amended the previous suite of measures to balance the right to identity of the adopted person with the right of the birth parent to privacy and to be left alone. The Government approved the drafting of this Bill, taking account of the report of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health and Children on the pre-legislative scrutiny of the general scheme and heads of the Bill in December 2015.

As the Deputy will be aware, the Bill is intended to facilitate access to adoption information and operates on the basis of presumption in favour of disclosing information, in so far as is legally constitutionally possible, for domestic and inter-country adoptions. The Bill will, for the first time, provide a statutory basis for the provision of information related to past and future adoptions. It will provide clarity around the information that can be provided and the circumstances in which it can be provided.

One of the key provisions in the Bill is to give an adopted person aged 18 years or over who was adopted prior to commencement a statutory entitlement to the information required to apply for his or her birth certificate, subject to certain conditions. The Bill also provides that an adopted person whose adoption was effected after the commencement of the Bill will be given his or her birth certificate at 18 years of age.

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