Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

The proposed birth information and tracing legislation will enshrine in law the right of a person to know his or her origins for the first time. The priority policy underpinning the scheme is to allow access to identity information, including unredacted birth certificates, birth and early life information to all adoptees, persons whose birth was illegally registered and those in care arrangements, for example, those who have been boarded out. The proposed legislation will empower these persons to access vital records related to their own identity.

Mothers can continue to avail of their existing rights under the GDPR, data protection and freedom of information legislation to access information pertaining to themselves. They can also avail of the right to rectification, which is enshrined in the GDPR and is a route for mothers to rectify personal data held about them in historical files which they consider to be inaccurate or incomplete. The issue of inaccurate or incomplete information is one about which mothers who have spoken to me are particularly concerned. As they can already obtain their own information and have it corrected under existing legal mechanisms, there is no provision for their rights under proposed legislation. However, mothers and other relatives will be able to avail of other important mechanisms under the birth information and tracing legislation, namely, the statutory contact preference register and a service to trace relatives for contact or information.

The contact preference register will be held by the Adoption Authority of Ireland. Persons, including mothers and siblings, can make applications to have their contact preference recorded or to lodge information. I have given very careful consideration to the issue of access to historical records by siblings where a relevant person is deceased. In this regard, I am conscious that GDPR can place significant restrictions on rights of access to personal data relating to third parties. This may constrain our proposals. However, I am also very much aware of the strong wish of people to access historical records relating to deceased relatives.

My Department is engaging with the Office of the Attorney General on the matter. It is complex because of GDPR but I have sought to explore all opportunities. We will discuss this as the legislation progresses.

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