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

Firstly, the Minister's insinuation that I dispute parents being able to register a no-contact preference is ridiculous. That is evident in the fact that we are not debating amendments to remove the no-contact preference. We are debating amendments on removing a mandatory information session for adopted people. The Minister bringing that into it is evidence of the non-existence of legitimate argument in keeping a mandatory information session. If we accept the Minister's argument that some mechanism is necessary to address the balancing of rights of accessing information and privacy, then the registered post option should be pursued rather than the paternalistic and insulting requirement for an adopted person to have to sit down with a State agent who explains to them what they already know. As I said previously, adopted people are already very knowledgeable about access to information and privacy. They have been forced to be knowledgeable about it by this Government and previous Governments. They do not need a mandatory information session.

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