Barry Andrews (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

Senator White makes a persuasive argument. The point I made initially — I cannot really elaborate on it — is that we are in consultation in terms of international adoption and the effect of tracing.

Many of the young people who were adopted from overseas are coming of age. Those adopted from Romania, in that period in the early 1990s, are coming of age and we are beginning to learn a great deal about the significance of tracing. Because the framework is new as well, we are beginning to learn a great deal about it.

The decision was made to exclude the post-adoption functions, whether it be as envisaged by amendment No. 52 on the promotion of post-adoption services, or any of these services from a statutory basis. We have some way to go before we put these functions on a statutory function. It is at a nascent stage. We will be in a better position to decide who the correct authority to do that is or whether it needs to be put on a statutory footing in due course. Maybe we can revisit it on Report Stage but that is my view.

We are developing these services. We are providing for a big incremental improvement to this area and we will know a great deal more in the next few years as these young citizens come of age.