Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is important that we support this motion to amend the Birth Information and Tracing Act 2022 to empower the Child and Family Agency, Tusla, or the Adoption Authority of Ireland to conduct a trace for specified purposes. Although the Act 2022 is now commenced in full and services are being delivered under the legislation, Tusla has now identified one area where the Act could be enhanced to further support the delivery of information services. Under Parts 3 and 4 of the legislation, a qualified person, the child of a deceased relevant person, can obtain the birth and early life information of his or her deceased parent in circumstances where the parent’s name on the birth certificate, or the grandparents, are also deceased, or a qualifying relative, namely, the next of kin of a relevant person who died as a child while resident in the mother and baby county home institution, can obtain the birth and early life information of the deceased relative.

This is an important motion. In order to establish that the parent named in the records is 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 in Part 5 of the Act. This inclusion is necessary in scenarios where a relevant person is deceased and his or her child is seeking his or her identity information as a qualifying person under Part 3, and for access by a qualifying person to a birth certificate, birth and other information relating to the relevant parent. This amendment will enable Tusla or the Adoption Authority of Ireland to contact a trace in circumstances where an application has been made under Parts 3 or 4. This would be automatic on receipt of an application and would not require a qualifying person to request the trace. This motion for Dáil approval is necessary for this amendment to be done via the Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2022 and is outside the scope of this Bill. This amendment is important and I will engage with Members to support it.

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