Alex White (Labour)

I move amendment No. 51:

In page 50, subsection (2), line 7, after "Authority" to insert the following:

", which shall give consent to that information being given where the adopted person and the person placing the child for adoption have agreed through a tracing mechanism to be established by the Authority that the information can be given".

This amendment deals with tracing and the need to put in place a formal tracing mechanism. This issue is an integral part of adoption in the sense that a person who in later years wishes to find out who he or she is or to inquire into his or her background and find out from where he or she came has a right and entitlement to do so. It is a right, within the limits and constraints laid down, that should be vindicated. I regret the Bill does not address this issue.

Amendment No. 53 seeks to add to section 96 a paragraph (e) which states: "promoting the development of services to assist persons who were adopted and persons who have placed children for adoption to trace one another". Amendment No. 51 seeks to amend section 86 and to add to it. We all understand that an tArd-Chláraitheoir will keep an index to make traceable the connection between each entry in the adopted children's register and the corresponding entry in the Register of Births. Section 86(2) states:

Notwithstanding section 85, the index kept under subsection (1) shall not be open to public inspection [which is fair enough] and no information from that index shall be given to any person except by order of a court or of the Authority.

We want to add to that "which shall give consent to that information being given where the adopted person or the person placing the child for adoption have agreed through a tracing mechanism to be established by the Authority that the information can be given". Amendment No. 53 seeks to include in the activities concerned in section 96 the objective of promoting the development of tracing services. Amendment No. 51 seeks to facilitate this in the context of the register.

There is a danger of this being a missed opportunity for us to view adoption as a life-long status for people. Adoption is not purely mechanical. We are speaking here of complex issues of law. However, adoption is not based on legal instrument; it is a reality for the entirety of a person's life. We should take this opportunity in this good and comprehensive Bill to go further and require the introduction of a form of tracing mechanism that would be supported and managed publicly. I am sure the Minister of State and other Members have had the experience of meeting persons in their constituencies wishing to trace their birth parents. We understand the sensitivities and mutuality involved and the fact that it is not often easily done. Nevertheless, there has been much development in this area in terms of how such matters can be sensitively managed.

Perhaps the Minister of State will seriously consider including these provisions as an objective and in doing so provide access to the register in circumstances where there is reciprocal agreement between the persons involved and in the context of a tracing mechanism which I hope he will consider introducing.