Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I wish to raise the Adoption (Information and Tracing) Bill 2016. I have been speaking to a number of adopted people who, as is their human right, are looking for information about their birth including their birth certificates. They cannot get them because all the power lies with the adoption societies and their inheritor, Tusla. One women in her 30s has thought long about this and wants to know about her birth. She is entitled to that under the UN and European conventions on human rights. Four years ago, she filled in forms and made the necessary contacts with Tusla. I presume they have by now put her on a contact tracing register. However, she has heard absolutely nothing. I have been in contact with her for many years. She accepts that it is going to take time. When I was Tánaiste I pursued this matter in private with each Attorney General and each Minister for Children and Youth Affairs. The Bill has stalled. Is the Government going to remove the barrier to people tracing their information, as provided for in the proposed Bill?

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