Barry Andrews (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

I indicated on Committee Stage that I would consider including a provision on tracing and I have consulted the Office of the Attorney General on whether the existing administrative system needs to be put on a statutory basis.

The Adoption Board contains an information tracing unit and the recently established preference register has received 6,270 applications and made 500 matches. Last year the board launched a standardised framework which provides guidelines and standards for this process.

The amendments refer to the promotion and development of tracing. If the board is to have a statutory role in this regard, it would have to be neutral on the issue of tracing because not everybody wishes to be contacted. Nevertheless, a strong argument can be made for the exchange of medical information. If one considers the child's interest as paramount, it is difficult to justify statutory blocks to providing that information even where a natural parent prefers not to be contacted in the normal way. We are discussing these issues with the Attorney General and I thank Senators for tabling these amendments.