John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Irish adopted people are uniquely discriminated against in comparison with other Irish citizens because they have no statutory right to their birth certificates or adoption files. Apart from vital information, these files contain early care records, details of illnesses, vaccines and placement with foster families, correspondence from natural mothers or family members and consent forms. Since 1952, the legislation has been amended eight times but none of the Adoption Acts to date has legislated for information rights for adopted people. There have been a number of attempts to legislate in this area. However, instead of repairing the harm done by Ireland’s closed, secret adoption system, the Government’s efforts to legislate for adoption information have compounded the situation even further. This important legislation brought forward by my colleague, Deputy Funchion, will immediately provide access to birth certificates for adopted people in the short term before comprehensive information and tracing legislation is brought forward by the Government.

The Minister is aware that under Irish law, birth registrations have been public records since 1864. Adopted people can have and have been given their birth certificates. They can access them by going to the General Register Office on Werburgh Street and carrying out a search through its books. It is a simple enough process. It costs money for the search and can be time-consuming. Over the past 30 or 40 years, many adopted people have been forced to take this route and have been made to feel they are doing something wrong or even illegal. The only thing wrong is that they are being discriminated against by the State and are forced, because they are adopted, to take this route simply to get a document that is readily available to all other Irish citizens. Why is this? It is because they have no automatic right to their birth certificate. Thousands of adopted people have been forced to go this route to get their birth certificates. They have established where they were born, their original names and their natural mothers' names and, guess what, the sky has not fallen in. It is time to end the discrimination, treat everyone equally under Irish law and provide in legislation the statutory right for adopted people to their own birth certificate.

That the Minister is not opposing this legislation is important and welcome but he needs to act on it and actively support the Bill through all Stages to end the discrimination that Irish adopted citizens face.

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