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

I move:

That it be an instruction to the Committee to which the Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2022 may be recommitted in respect of certain amendments that, pursuant to Standing Order 187, the Committee has power to make amendments to the Bill which are outside the scope of the existing provisions of the Bill in order to make amendments to the quorum arrangements for the Board of the Adoption Authority Ireland to facilitate Board meetings under the Adoption Act, and to extend the tracing power under Part 5 of the Birth and Information Tracing Act 2022 to Tusla and the Adoption Authority Ireland in order to establish that the parents named in a qualifying person's records are deceased, and to make other consequential amendments required to take account of the changes above.

I am aware there are a few procedural questions about what we are discussing now and what we will be discussing on Report Stage later. At the start of Committee Stage on this Bill I flagged I would be bringing a set of amendments on Report Stage. One set of amendments deals with amendments to the Birth Information and Tracing Act and another set merges the right to request remote working proposal into the Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill. We have been advised the first set of birth information and tracing amendments must be recommitted to Committee Stage and this is the purpose of this motion. We are advised the right to request remote working amendments do not require the Bill to be recommitted so my contribution is going to focus on the information and tracing amendments but I will also briefly address the right to request remote working element as well.

I am bringing forward an amendment to the Birth Information and Tracing Act under the Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill. The landmark passage of the Birth Information and Tracing Act through these Houses represented a long overdue recognition of rights of access to a person's own information. For the first time in the history of the State adopted persons have a clear and guaranteed right of access to their identity information, including information which is also the personal data of another person and certain defined categories of third-party information. It also allows for access to information by a child of a relevant person where their parent has died and for access by the next of kin of children who died in an institution. This level of guaranteed access is not possible under established data protection law, such as the general data protection regulation, GDPR, and this is what makes the Birth Information and Tracing Act 2022 ground-breaking in nature.

The new law establishes a robust tracing service and a contact preference register, as well as a range of new bespoke measures to address issues arising for people affected by illegal birth registration. A bespoke website, www.birthinfo.ie went live on 1 July. The contact preference register provided for under the Act was established on 1 July. The register enables people affected to register their preference for contact, the level of contact preferred or indeed no contact. Since opening, almost 3,000 new contact preferences have been registered, both within Ireland and from abroad. The Adoption Authority of Ireland has identified 194 matches to date and is engaging directly with individuals to support their preference for contact.

As of 5 December, a total of 5,847 applications for information have been received by Tusla and the Adoption Authority of Ireland. In addition, a total of 2,597 applications for tracing have been made. The initial surge of demand for services under the new Act presents some significant challenges for the two bodies in processing the huge number of applications received. Both Tusla and the Adoption Authority of Ireland are working hard to process applications for information and, to date, information has been released to 558 individuals. Each week, more and more people are receiving their information and finding answers to long-held questions.

Last week, I received two separate emails from individuals who had received their birth name for the very first time using the provisions of the Act. It is delivering for the people we passed it for.

Regarding the amendments proposed, Tusla has identified one technical enhancement to the Act that would further support delivery of information services under the legislation. The intention of the amendment is to enable Tusla or the Adoption Authority of Ireland to conduct a trace in circumstances where an application has been made and it is necessary to establish if the persons listed as parents on the birth certificate or birth information are deceased. This verification trace would be automatic on receipt of an application and would not require a qualifying person to request the trace or the Minister to direct or consent to the trace. Currently, under Part 3 of the legislation a qualifying person, that is, the child of a deceased relevant person, can receive the birth and early life information of their deceased parent in circumstances where the parents named on the birth certificate of the relevant person are also deceased. In order to establish that the grandparents in question are deceased, Tusla would benefit from being able to avail of the tracing powers provided for in Part 5 of the Act.

Part 4 provides that a qualifying relative, that is, the next of kin of a relevant person who died as a child while resident in a mother and baby or county home institution, can obtain the birth and early life information of their deceased relative. While parents will automatically receive this information on application, in the case of a qualifying relative who is not a parent of the relevant person, the information may only be released where the parents named on the birth certificate are deceased. In order to establish that the parents named in the records are deceased, it would be useful for Tusla and the Adoption Authority of Ireland to have the authority to avail of the tracing powers provided for under Part 5 of the Act. The amendment supports the primary purpose of the Act and will ensure the release of information in all cases where it is available.

As I indicated on Committee Stage, the work life balance Bill now includes an amendment that will give a right to request remote working to all workers. The right to request flexible working remains limited to parents and carers. The main changes to the Bill arising from this are the introduction of a statutory code of practice which will govern both flexible and remote working requests, and a requirement for employers to have regard to the code when considering remote working requests. This means that all requests for remote and flexible working will be considered under one piece of integrated legislation, simplifying the process for employers and employees and reducing the administrative burden on businesses. The Bill also now includes a provision for the flexible working provisions to be reviewed after two years, including a consideration of extending the entitlement to request flexible working to all employees.

I note that the pre-legislative scrutiny reports on both the right to request remote working Bill and the work life balance Bill recognised the similarity of the Bills and recommended that certain aspects should align with each another. The proposed remote working amendments wholly or partially incorporate all 20 of the recommendations of the pre-legislative scrutiny report on the right to request remote working Bill. In particular, recommendation 12 of the report sets out that the remote working legislation should align with the general scheme of the Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill. This is exactly what the Government is doing through the proposed remote working amendments. In addition, six of the 20 recommendations of the remote working pre-legislative scrutiny report centred wholly or partially on the role a statutory code of practice might play in the implementation of the legislation once enacted. Through the proposed amendments, a single code of practice will be developed, which will form a core element of the decision-making processes governing requests for both flexible and remote working. I have no doubt we will discuss these in more detail on Report Stage. I commend the motion to the House.

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