Results 1-10 of 10 for at segment:8268495 speaker:Roderic O'Gorman

Seanad: Birth Information and Tracing Bill 2022: Committee Stage (18 May 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: I thank the Senator. At all times in the work that has been ongoing on the Bill, including prior to the initial drafting of the general scheme, the detailed work that took place during pre-legislative scrutiny and the detailed Committee and Report Stages in Dáil Éireann, we have sought to clarify and strengthen the definitions contained in the legislation to ensure that as wide a...

Seanad: Birth Information and Tracing Bill 2022: Committee Stage (18 May 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: I thank the Senator. They are covered. The people who can use this legislation are covered in the definition of "relevant person", which means a person who is one or more of the following: an adopted person; and a person who is or has reasonable grounds for suspecting that he or she is the subject of an incorrect birth registration. There is a third category that is not relevant to this...

Seanad: Birth Information and Tracing Bill 2022: Committee Stage (18 May 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: This is similar to the previous discussion. Section 11 relates to the "Relevant body to provide early life, care information or incorrect birth registration information on application by relevant person aged 18 years or over". Subsection (2) states that, subject to subsection (3), a relevant body on application to it made under this section "shall, to the extent that it is practicable to do...

Seanad: Birth Information and Tracing Bill 2022: Committee Stage (18 May 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: I certainly think it helps and gives clarity in that circumstance of illegal birth registration. In terms of the release of the name, this is something on which I and the team in my Department have engaged extensively with the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel.It is something that has been raised at other stages of the debate on this legislation. We are talking about a balancing test that...

Seanad: Birth Information and Tracing Bill 2022: Committee Stage (18 May 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: I thank all the Senators for their contributions on these amendments. Before I speak to amendments Nos. 56 to 61, inclusive, I want to say that Senator Boyhan is right to remind us all that, once this legislation is passed and operational and once adopted people are using its provisions, there are people who will be deeply disappointed because the information simply is not there. The...

Seanad: Birth Information and Tracing Bill 2022: Committee Stage (18 May 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: The Senator might look at section 2, which states: For the purposes of this Act, a person (“first mentioned person”) is the subject of an incorrect birth registration where— (a) as a result of the giving of information that was false or misleading ... That element of "false or misleading" that the Senator mentioned earlier on is directly included in section 2 and...

Seanad: Birth Information and Tracing Bill 2022: Committee Stage (18 May 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: I thank all of the Senators for their engagement on this point. I will seek to address all that was said. First, I wish to respond to Senator Warfield's comment that some people who are illegally adopted have no rights under this Bill. As Senator Seery Kearney said, that is just wrong. The very centre of Parts 8 and 9 is about dealing with the situation of those who were the subject of...

Seanad: Birth Information and Tracing Bill 2022: Committee Stage (18 May 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: I thank Senator Boyhan for his comments. I, too, welcome this opportunity, which is longer perhaps in this House than the Committee Stage was in the other House. It is useful to tease through the issues. Specifically on Senator Higgins's point on using the word "or", I confirm that I specifically raised the issue of looking at "or" rather than having a pure substitution. Again, having...

Seanad: Birth Information and Tracing Bill 2022: Committee Stage (18 May 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: I cannot support amendment No. 65, which seeks to provide for an adoptive parent to apply for medical information for his or her adoptive child where that child is under 16 years of age. It seeks to alter the process through which the release of third-party medical information is provided. This issue is one that was subject to detailed consultations between us, the Office of the...

Seanad: Birth Information and Tracing Bill 2022: Committee Stage (18 May 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: Senator Boyhan raised the important point of the information about vaccine trials that were done and, as we know now, done without consent and often in breach of what were the medical guidelines of the time, which I believe were the Nuremberg guidelines. It is a source of great concern for many people who were in mother and baby or county home institutions or other institutions. As Senator...