Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

On Sunday night, in Cahir, County Tipperary, a women's history group put up 24 temporary plaques to celebrate the forgotten women of the town. They dedicated one plaque to the banished women of Cahir and placed it at the spot on the square where women and girls were picked up to be sent to mother and baby homes. It reads:

Banished Women

We waited here to be taken to Mother and Baby Homes

The shame was not theirs - it was ours.

They reminded us that this happened in every town and village. Church and State colluded to incarcerate women for being pregnant at a time without access to contraception, sex education or reproductive rights and sometimes for being pregnant as a result of rape and abuse. More importantly, this plaque reminds us that this is not in the past. The pain, the shame and the injustice is still with us. Survivors, adoptees and their families are living with the pain, suffering and doubt. The actions of the Irish State and church still have a real living impact today. This is not the past, it is the present.

Regrettably, the Government and religious orders are too quick to assign these matters to history, to say it was a different time, to make apologies and wait for the news cycle to move on. Last week’s "RTÉ Investigates" programme on illegal adoptions clearly demonstrated how this is not just in the past. The same system which locked women away, covered up the mass deaths of babies and children and facilitated the illegal adoptions and the falsification of birth certificates. Just as the rights of the mothers were trampled on, the rights of adoptees were ignored from the day they were born. These human rights abuses continue to this day, by virtue of them still being denied access to their identity, that is, access to the most basic and profound information about themselves.

On the "RTÉ Investigates" programme, the people affected explained how their worlds were turned upside down when they were told. Brave adoptees shared their stories with us. They described being refused information about themselves and receiving redacted files. In the words of one of the adoptees, Brian:

It's very simple for somebody to just get a piece of Tippex and white something out, but they don't actually realise that what they're whiting out is vital information for somebody.

This cruel and obstructive response to adoptees needs to end.

My gratitude to Deputy Funchion for bringing forward this Bill is only surpassed by my disgust at the Government for failing to do so for so long and for again failing to give justice to survivors. Since 1864, all birth certificates have been publicly available, except in one case. Adopted people are the only people in Ireland who are denied the ability to retrieve their own birth certificate. Agents of the State continue that discrimination. This is happening today, not just in the past. Institutions and individuals in control of adopted people's files, including Tusla and the Adoption Authority of Ireland, refuse to inform adopted people of their name at birth or provide them with their unredacted adoption-early life file. It is outrageous and a further example of a callous State determined to cover up and deny the rights of survivors.

The continuing refusal to tell adopted people their name at birth and provide them with their publicly registered birth certificate is, in the view of human rights experts, unconstitutional and contrary to the GDPR. Under EU law, which is supreme over any conflicting Irish law, a person's name is his or her personal data. People have the right under Article 15 of the GDPR to access that information. There is no ambiguity. The only way that right can be restricted is by clear legislation that is a necessary and proportionate measure in a democratic society. The withholding from adopted people of their name at birth does not meet that requirement. It is arbitrary, discriminatory, unnecessary and cruel.

Successive Governments and Departments have continued to perpetuate what Claire McGettrick, co-founder of the Adoption Rights Alliance, labels adoption myths. These myths attempt to undermine the cases made by adopted persons and even try to pitch adoptees against their biological parents. The most common myth is that adopted persons cannot be provided with their birth certificates because doing so would infringe on their natural mother's privacy. This presumes that it is only adopted people who want their personal information and mothers are fearful that their adult children may try to contact them. It does not recognise that mothers often seek out their adopted children or that some adopted people have no interest in or desire to find out about their natural parents. Only 5% of natural mothers who registered with the National Adoption Contact Preference Register indicated that they wish to have no contact with their daughter or son. The reality is that most natural mothers have not been given the opportunity to express their views on this issue. When Philomena Lee spoke out in 2013, she inspired others to come forward and find the strength to overcome decades of secrecy.

Successive Governments have had no interest in this nuance and some religious orders obstruct mothers who seek out their children. Church and State are still deciding what is best for the people affected, without asking them, and they continue to prevent access to information. A culture of secrecy and shame still surrounds these adoptions. The same secrecy and shame of the 1940s and 1950s continues today. It is seen in the Departments denying access to information, the treatment of adopted people and the lives of the mothers still scarred from abuses decades ago. This is not in the past; it is happening in the present.

There are solutions, if we want to find them. Legal opinion from leading experts in this area, including Dr. Maeve O'Rourke, Máiréad Enright and Professor Conor O'Mahony, outlines potential mechanisms to balance the rights of adopted people and their parents and the right to privacy with the right to access one's information. This is standard practice in other countries and the issues in this regard can no longer be used as an excuse by the State not to act.We need processes that provide personal data access without unnecessary and arbitrary State coercion. We must put adoptees, natural mothers and survivors at the heart of this conversation. The overriding priority of the State should be to pursue justice based on people's lived experiences. Instead, we have the Government paying lip service to survivors but continually ignoring their pleas.

We know adoptee rights groups, survivor groups and their allies are seeking the passing of this legislation. We have all received messages from constituents in support of it. The writer of one such email said:

We have failed adoptees for too long, we need to make it right. This is not about party or politics. This is about doing the right thing by people long denied the most basic of knowledge of themselves.

As this Bill progresses, it must be informed by further engagement with those affected and their advocates. I am confident that Deputy Funchion will pursue that engagement. My colleagues in the Social Democrats and I will continue to work with those groups to do our best to represent them.

The Bill helps to address one injustice arising out of the systematic abuse and illegal treatment of so many Irish people. It is one step to right the wrongs of the past, which have very real impacts in the present. Adoption in Ireland was generally forced and frequently illegal.

This cruel system mistreated the mothers and obliterated the identities of thousands of adopted people.

The Government and church leaders are eager to tell us we have moved on and that circumstances are different. Unfortunately, the treatment of survivors and adoptees in recent months tells a different story. The Irish State is obliged to remedy these abuses rather than continue to unjustifiably and unlawfully deny adopted people their identity.

With regard to the “RTÉ Investigates” programme, it is important to note that although the stories echo those of so many adopted people in Ireland, this legislation does not apply to those adoptees. The falsification of birth certificates is a separate issue. As the individuals were not legally adopted, there is no possible argument that the law prevents them from being given their files. There is no need for legislation to give these people their files.

The Minister's announcement yesterday is nothing more than an unnecessary delaying tactic, something of which we have seen enough. People do not need someone to examine the issues arising and propose the next steps. The adoptees in question do not have birth certificates, only false ones. It is not complicated; these are crimes and the records need to go to the Garda and courts so as to engage an inquiry immediately. There should be no more delays. People need their full records now. After they receive them, there can be an inquiry.

The Minister is saying the Government will not be voting down the Sinn Féin Bill today but quite likely will not be acting to proceed with it quickly. We saw this last week with the Social Democrats' motion to extend the life of the commission. Playing politics with issues is cynical and people do not appreciate it at all. Particularly with an issue such as this, we need to put politics aside. The Government is playing with people's lives when it plays politics. Cynically not voting the Bill down but then doing nothing about it just adds further insult to injury. It is completely unnecessary, particularly regarding issues like this.

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