Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome amendments Nos. 75 and 76. They illustrate the complexity of the situation and the history that lies behind the Bill. They show why so much thought needs to be put into transferring records and the sources for records and information, given the very piecemeal history of adoption legislation and practices in Ireland.

I want to refer to the Minister's comment on my use of the term "outlier". That word was used in our pre-legislative scrutiny report. When we spoke about the mandatory information session, the committee said that in the international context, Ireland will remain an outlier with the conditional access proposed in the Bill. That was a term used in the report and that is why I used it today. It is unfortunate we could not move further, given where we are now and how much movement there has been on so much more, including in amendments Nos. 75 and 76. The fact that section 17 remains in its current form is, as I have said, out of keeping with the general spirit and tone elsewhere in the Bill and the amendments the Minister has put forward, which we have all welcomed and which have made such improvements to the Bill.

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