Barry Andrews (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

I thank Senator White for proposing these amendments, which I have considered carefully. The Senator is proposing in amendment No. 51 that in certain circumstances, the authority, having considered the issues involved, should not have the discretion to limit the publication of certain information and restrict access to public inspection of such information. I am not sure what he is getting at. I do not oppose the principle of giving precedence to any agreement reached by the adopted person and the person who placed the child for adoption. However, we need to examine closely the question of how such an agreement can be arrived at. The amendment refers to "a tracing mechanism to be established by the Authority". How do we go into that? If the Senator withdraws this amendment, perhaps we can consider the matter more carefully in advance of Report Stage.

Amendment No. 53 relates to the development of services to help people who have been adopted and people who placed children for adoption to trace one another. I have not changed my view on this matter since the last time we discussed it. The functions of the authority are set out in this Bill. A substantial amount of administrative work has been done to assist tracing. The contact preference register is in place. I have with me a copy of the standardised framework for the provision of a national information and tracing service, which was launched in November 2008. The authority administers the framework, which was drawn up in a manner that is consistent with international best practice in terms of tracing, very well. At this stage, there is no need to put any obligations in that regard on a statutory footing. Our framework is being piloted and scoped out. Stakeholders are being consulted to ensure it is a workable and proper framework. If we subsequently think statutory provision is required, it may be appropriate to do so at some future stage. I ask Senator White to withdraw amendment No. 51 to allow us to consider the possibility of including a provision of that nature on Report Stage. I oppose amendment No. 53.