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Select Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Birth Information and Tracing Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Mar 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: This amendment is linked to amendment No. 78, upon which we have already voted and which was defeated. The amendment seeks to include a definition of personal data in the Bill. As we already have a definition of personal data - the definition used in the general data protection regulation - we do not propose to accept a new and different definition of personal data. I do not accept the...

Select Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Birth Information and Tracing Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Mar 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: I will speak to amendments Nos. 148 to 154, inclusive, collectively. The first issue is around the discussion on the release of records as opposed to information. I seek to reassure Deputies now, as I have on a number of similar amendments previously, that we are not just releasing information; we are releasing copies of the records. This is provided for in relation to birth information,...

Select Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Birth Information and Tracing Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Mar 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: I will deal with amendment No. 164 separately. My response is the same as that to the previous set of amendments. The Bill provides for copies of records to be supplied to anybody who applies under this legislation. The proposed provision is not necessary because the goal, one that we share, that people get full copies of their records and not just information is already provided for in...

Select Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Birth Information and Tracing Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Mar 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: This amendment seeks to give a relevant person his or her medical information even if he or she has not asked for it. When persons apply for information, they can seek birth, care and medical information. There will be a form on which they tick the box on which sort of information they seek. I believe the vast majority of adopted people will seek all information but some may, for whatever...

Select Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Birth Information and Tracing Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Mar 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: All medical information is already available under the provisions of the Bill. Vaccines are covered either under the medical information category or the early life category. The amendment states "When a relevant person applies under sections 11 and 12 for information". Section 11 deals with the "Relevant body to provide early life, care information or incorrect birth registration...

Select Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Birth Information and Tracing Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Mar 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: Section 15 covers the release of medical information. It is clear that it covers all elements of such information. When we undertake the information campaign about what material people can apply for under this legislation and particularly when we provide the documentation for people to make an application, we can make it clear what is set out under the categories. We will make it clear...

Select Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Birth Information and Tracing Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Mar 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: In terms of the design, I agree. My understanding from the initial work the team has done is that there is an all information box that can be achieved there. The Deputy is correct that there is overlap in the definitions. Throughout all our discussions here I have said that we have designed the definitions expansively. We are keeping them wide so we can take in as much information as...

Select Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Birth Information and Tracing Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Mar 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: This section is one of the most significant elements of the Bill. It speaks to one of the key issues raised by adopted people, namely, that they are denied information about their medical history that could be relevant to their health and that this occurs because they do not know who their parents are and they do not know their family medical history. It is very important to remember what...

Select Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Birth Information and Tracing Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Mar 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: On the definition of "relevant", the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth has the power to draft guidelines on the definition. I have spoken about that power previously with regard to securing and ensuring the interpretation given by the bodies applying these provisions is as broad a definition as possible and moving all of these bodies into a culture of...

Select Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Birth Information and Tracing Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Mar 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: Children aged under 16 are not directly covered by the Bill. This issue was raised by the Office of the Ombudsman for Children. We have stated that we will, in future, consider the position of children under the age of 16. We have made provision for children aged 16 and 17 to gain access to their information but the Ombudsman for Children is of the view that the younger the child, the...

Select Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Birth Information and Tracing Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Mar 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: As I read them, what this group of amendments is seeking to do is to remove the requirement to provide the relevant medical information to the relevant medical practitioner, who will then provide it to the relevant person. I see that as what this set of amendments aims to do. Turning to the Deputy's point concerning consistency in this context, she is right that it is vital and that is...

Select Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Birth Information and Tracing Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Mar 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: I want to get these guidelines published as quickly as possible, but I am not sure if it will be possible to have them ready in their entirety before Report Stage. The team has been focused on addressing the significant body of work in front of the committee now. We can look perhaps at getting some draft heads of the guidelines for the committee, or something like that. We will do our best...

Select Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Birth Information and Tracing Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Mar 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: Guidelines cannot be officially published until the legislation is enacted. As I said, however, we will endeavour to get drafts of the guidelines to the committee. It must be recognised, though, that those will only be drafts of the guidelines and that they will be subject to change, but we can listen to the views of the committee in that regard as well. To reiterate, what we will be...

Select Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Birth Information and Tracing Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Mar 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: These deal specifically with guidelines. I have given a commitment to try to make available draft heads of guidelines to Deputies in advance of Report Stage.

Select Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Birth Information and Tracing Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Mar 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: The drafting of the ministerial guidelines and release of medical information on a genetic relative is provided for under the section. Section 16(7) states the Minister may consult such persons as he or she considers appropriate. In the context of the release of medical information, consultation with medical experts would involve the person most relevant, including in the sense of having...

Select Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Birth Information and Tracing Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Mar 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: I move amendment No. 200: In page 25, to delete line 6 and substitute "be, and".

Select Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Birth Information and Tracing Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Mar 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: I move amendment No. 201: In page 25, to delete lines 7 to 10 and substitute the following: "(b) the fact that— (i) the parent concerned has exercised his or her entitlement under section 38(11)to state that he or she is not willing to be contacted by the relevant person, and (ii) the making of that statement by the parent constitutes an exercise by him or her of his or her...

Select Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Birth Information and Tracing Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Mar 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: We made a decision when bringing forward this legislation that we did not want to define just for those people aged 18 and above and we wanted to recognise that younger people who were adopted also have an interest in their birth and early life information. We wanted to make provision for that. Issues are different when we are not dealing with adults and we engaged quite significantly. In...

Select Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Birth Information and Tracing Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Mar 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: This legislation already makes it clear that copies of relevant records will be provided in all circumstances and this is already provided for in the Bill. As such, this amendment is not necessary.