Martin Browne (Tipperary, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I also thank Deputy Funchion for bringing forward this amendment Bill and I acknowledge the involvement of survivors in that effort. The legislation we are seeking to amend is representative of how the ways of the past are slow to change and shows that we cannot rely on the Government's leisurely attitude to address the wrongs of the past.

The history of adoption in this country is similar to the history that has been exposed in the course of the national conversation on the mother and baby homes. It involves interference from that arm of the State that was involved in creating a secretive and closed system that had long-term impacts on any people. Legal adoption, which was first introduced on 1 January 1953, meant that an adopted child passed as the natural offspring of the adoptive parents, with no interference from the natural mothers. Under Irish law, birth registration has been a matter of public record since 1864. The index of the adopted children's register is also a public record yet the practice is very different. In practice, adopted people have no automatic right to their birth certificates or adoption files. Why has that been allowed to continue? It is because there were no explicit statutory rights confirming the right of adopted persons to access those records. This has resulted in ad hoc, unprofessional and often discriminatory practices and policies. The Bill addresses these by inserting a simple one-section amendment to the Civil Registration Act 2004 to allow adopted persons over the age of 18 to make an application to obtain significant information in order to obtain their birth certificate.

We must ask why different rules apply to certain people in this country and not to the rest of us. Why are adopted people treated as though they cannot be trusted with their own birth records? It cannot be justified that an adopted person is denied his or her identity because of the perceived right to privacy of the birth mother. The State has never produced any documentation to back up the guarantee of secrecy while adopted people see it as an infringement of their rights. That is the reason an effective Opposition is needed to ensure that is challenged and addressed in the way Sinn Féin is doing today.

I hope the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, will provide regular updates on the work of the special rapporteur on child protection on the registration of illegal births. We need full clarity about the various processes that are under way to resolve the issues of the past. This is just one of them.

There is no other group of people in Irish society who are discriminated in the way adopted people are. The implications are far-reaching and unnecessary. The wrongs perpetrated on people in the recent history of this State are fresh in our minds. That is why we must strike while the iron is hot and address the injustices immediately. Let us begin that process now by supporting this Bill.

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