Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the debate in the House today and acknowledge all of the Deputies who have contributed, particularly those who have shared personal family stories. I also thank Deputy Funchion and Sinn Féin for bringing forward this Bill.

We all recognise the background to the issues giving rise to this initiative. My colleague, the Minister, Deputy O’Gorman, has already set out the Government position, which I endorse. I add my own views given that responsibility for the General Register Office and Civil Registration Service and systems fall under my Department’s remit. As the Minister, Deputy O’Gorman, has already outlined, the Government is fully committed to allowing adopted persons and others to have access to information about their births and early childhood. The Minister has already indicated that both he and the Attorney General are working to present the House with a set of proposals that will comprehensively address the issues of access to birth and early life information.

I find it difficult, if not impossible, to adequately appreciate the significance of this issue for people who are adopted. From my engagement with those who have approached me, I know the depth of hurt and alienation that many have suffered in the way that we have attempted and failed to deal with these matters heretofore. It is time to change. We must acknowledge the pain suffered by birth parents, often young vulnerable women who had little or no choice. We will never be able to fully appreciate the horror and pain endured by these women. I do not care what the cultural or social environment was at the time, what happened to those women was and will always be wrong.

I join with Deputies on all sides of the House today in condemning the activities of certain agencies and people in authority and in positions of trust that operated outside of the legal framework and safeguards of the adoption laws. They have left a trail of hurt, concealment and loss.

As the Minister, Deputy O’Gorman, indicated earlier, the Government will not oppose the Bill and wants to provide adoptees with full access to their birth certificate. I am aware that there has been extensive engagement between the Minister, Deputy O’Gorman, and the Attorney General on the issue of access to birth information. Intensive work is currently ongoing on the development of draft heads of an information and tracing Bill which the Minister, Deputy O’Gorman, hopes to bring to Government in the coming weeks.

In that context it is important to point out that the mechanisms set out in the Private Members’ Bill will not assist persons other than adoptees who are seeking their birth certificate. While the Bill is well intentioned, it will not assist those whose births were illegally registered or those whose original identity may have been obscured as a result of being boarded out. I am also conscious that the legislative proposal in the Private Members’ Bill only deals with those who have an adoption recorded since 1953. This legislation will not deal with others who have been telling their compelling stories for years. These are the people who are adopted before legal adoption was passed in 1952. We know of people in our communities who had family care arrangements made before the Adoption Act came into operation. There are also those who benefited from informal care arrangements made after the Adoption Act was commenced. There is also a group of people whose true birth registration may not have been recorded accurately or where their origins were obscured by informal processes where no records were maintained.

I agree with Deputies when they call on the Government to provide long-term solutions to those who are the victims of incorrect birth registration and for whom only false or misleading historic documentation is available. It is the intention of the Minister, Deputy O’Gorman, that his legislative proposals on information and tracing will include these and other related matters.

Those of us who are not adopted will never fully appreciate the significance of knowing our true identity or that of our birth parents. It is just something that we take for granted. I can only imagine how difficult this is for people and the emotional journey that a person engages in before they seek their birth information. It is important that we reflect on the importance of adoption and ensure, by our words and comments, that we do not sunder the confidence society has in the work of the Adoption Authority of Ireland. There will always be a need to enable a child to be placed with loving and caring adoptive parents. Let us remember that adoption provides families and children with security and opportunities that might not otherwise be available. We must be careful to ensure that parents of today and in the future are encouraged to provide adoptive opportunities.

As the Minister, Deputy O’Gorman, has outlined, he is committed to working with the Attorney General to bring forward comprehensive legislation in the coming weeks to address many of the issues that have been raised.

We all agree that it is absolutely vital that we get the legislation right to give people certainty and ensure that full and comprehensive access to birth information for all adoptees is provided.

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