Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)
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5. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs if she is satisfied that adoption records are adequately protected; her plans to improve their protection; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [21822/13]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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In consultation with the Adoption Authority and the Health Service Executive, HSE, my Department is examining legislative and administrative options in relation to accessing records which may exist. I intend strengthening the legislative provisions regarding maintenance and access to adoption records in the forthcoming adoption (information and tracing) Bill. An important aspect of the proposed legislation relates to responsibility for adoption records. The intention is that the Bill is to provide that either the Adoption Authority, the HSE or an accredited body may hold adoption records, with the authority having overall charge of those records. It is intended that the Bill will provide for the Adoption Authority to be responsible for providing access to adoption records in accordance with the provisions of the Bill. The Bill will provide for the Adoption Authority to establish and maintain a national index of adoption records, the purpose of which is to help an applicant for adoption information to identify the location of his or her adoption records.

The HSE has commenced the takeover of files. In late 2011, the HSE adoption services took responsibility for the adoption files of the Sacred Heart Adoption Society in respect of homes in Bessborough, County Cork, St. Peter's, Castlepollard, County Westmeath, and Sean Ross Abbey, Roscrea, County Tipperary.

These files have since been transferred to the HSE in their entirety and are stored in specialised facilities in Glanmire, County Cork.

It is also intended that the Bill will provide for placing the national contact preference register on a statutory basis. The purpose of the register is to allow a person affected by adoption to enter his or her name on the register, with a view to receiving information about another person from whom he or she has been separated as a result of adoption and also to indicate a preference as to whether contact is being sought with that person.

Additional information not given on the floor of the House

When the former Adoption Board launched the national adoption contact preference register in 2005, provision was made for persons, who were party to the illegal registration of a child, to declare an interest in the register for possible contact with another relevant party sometime in the future. Fundamental to the success of the national contact preference register is that any persons with information in this regard contact the information and tracing unit of the Adoption Authority. The Adoption Act 1952 provided a legal basis for adoption in Ireland and for the establishment of the Adoption Board, thereby bringing order to what had been the ad hocarrangements which had previously existed in lieu of formal adoption procedures.

A national tracing service will be established under the provisions of the Bill, the operation of which will be subject to guidelines to be set out in regulations. It is intended that the tracing service is to be made available to an adopted person, a birth parent and a relative of either an adopted person or a birth parent, and that the Adoption Authority is to have overall responsibility for providing the tracing service. Work on the development of the Adoption (Information and Tracing) Bill is also proceeding. This includes careful examination of the constitutional and legal issues involved in the disclosure of information relating to a person and the issues of privacy which arise where the consent of all the parties involved has not been obtained.

Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)
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It is good to hear the Bill will include retrospective tracing rights. However, more than likely, there will be some information in the private domain that will need to be chased up. Most of us agree that the child's right to an identity must be of greater importance than the mother's right to privacy. The legislation must be introduced without further delay and I am unsure why it has been delayed. The Minister said last year it would be in place by Christmas. We need to bring Ireland in line with international best practice, which has a presumption of openness.

Giving 50,000 plus adopted people access to their birth certificates and early care records is essential in their quest for identity. I note that Susan Lohan of the Adoption Rights Alliance is insisting that the new legislation should take into account all files containing information on adopted people's origins, including, but not limited to, mother and baby home files, private agency files, HSE files, Department of Foreign Affairs files, GP and nursing home files. This is vital data and the State needs to seek information in an active way so it can centralise the data.

I was given a copy of a birth record of a woman who was illegally adopted in the 1950s. The mother's name on the birth record was not the name of the birth mother, but the adopted mother. This is like stealing someone's identity. The grandson of the midwife attending the birth found six birth registry books in an attic, containing the records of hundreds of births. He was decent and handed these records over. Clearly, there is probably data out there that should be collected. Will the Minister organise a proactive search for this sort of data, which supports people's quests for identity? There is information in the private domain the Adoption Authority needs to obtain.

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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Anybody who has access to or who knows about private information or adoption records held in private hands should make that known to the authorities. I am glad that in the case cited by the Deputy, that was done. I accept the Deputy's point regarding the need for the legislation to have a proactive demand that files held elsewhere other than with the statutory authorities, and perhaps mother and baby homes, be handed over. We could put a proactive obligation on people aware of such files to provide that information. I agree with the Deputy it would be important to gather the records from as many sources as possible. I will see what we can do in the legislation with regard to that and to ensuring there is a proactive approach to gathering adoption records.

The intention in the Bill is to give the Adoption Authority the responsibility of holding all of the records. I believe that will happen under the terms of the Bill. The Deputy made the point regarding the child's right to access information. I agree, but I should point out there are complex legal and constitutional issues in Ireland that are different from those in other countries which have taken this route. We have constitutional provisions that are very strong in regard to privacy and this is one of the issues I am trying to tease out to see whether we can reach a balance. This is one of the reasons there is some delay. I would like to have as strong legislation as possible in terms of the child's right to access information, to medical records and to know more about his or her identity, but that will have to be balanced. We are currently examining where that balance will be in the Bill and I am trying to ensure we strengthen as much as possible the child's rights to access that information. It is a complex issue constitutionally and the Attorney General is examining it.

Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)
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I understand a judgment of 1998 upsets the balance between the rights of the child and the privacy of the mother. However, I understood the children's referendum would deal with that. Will the Minister clarify whether the children's referendum addressed that issue? Will the Minister tell us when the Bill is expected to be in place?

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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If one wanted to address that issue comprehensively, it would have to be done through a referendum on privacy issues. The children's referendum was about putting the best interest of the child at the heart of decisions, about hearing the views of the child and about ensuring a broader group of children could be adopted. It was to ensure that children who were in long-term fostering were eligible for adoption. However, this is a different constitutional issue. Once the issues relating to the referendum were finalised, the principles agreed would ensure that those constitutional criteria would apply across a range of cases.

There is clearly a separate constitutional issue in regard to privacy and the balance we have been discussing. I do not have a date for the completion of the Bill as I am awaiting legal clarification on the Bill currently. However, I assure the Deputy a great deal of work has been done on the issue the Deputy raised about the maintaining of records and ensuring they are preserved carefully and on ensuring the Adoption Authority will have the overall responsibility to ensure the safety of and access to records.