Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The difficulty is that, sadly, there is nothing new in the recent revelations. The knowledge of the incidence of the criminal, illegal registration of births has been known by society for a long time. One of the points that must emerge from an extension beyond a scoping exercise is the huge numbers of people involved. This is not speculation; the evidence is known.

Conall Ó Fátharta wrote in yesterday's edition of the Irish Examinerabout the 748 cases on top of the 126 cases and the knowledge that existed in adoption agencies. The AAI gave information to the health committee in 2014 that said there were thousands of illegal adoptions at that stage. It cannot be a lottery for the people at the centre of this whereby one of their samples might get picked and they get an answer. There may be people who do not even know that they require an answer. We need to be extensive in the research because much larger numbers of people are affected by this. These cases have gone long beyond the records of St. Patrick's Guild and the other institutions. It has been known for some time that we needed to secure those records. The key issues are to stress to the Minister the urgency of the situation and the need to extend the scope.

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