Frances Fitzgerald (Fine Gael)

It is astounding that out of more than 6,000 people who wanted further details on their adoptions, 5,770 were unable to get this information. The information may be less accurate in respect of the cohort of older people but most of these cases would have involved Irish adoptions. These figures underscore the importance of a tracing mechanism.

My amendment proposes the creation of an index that would make traceable the connection between each entry in the register of foreign adoptions and a child's original identity, including country of birth. This information would not be open to public inspection and information would only be provided by order of a court or the authority. It would have to be a highly confidential system. The figures outlined by the Minister of State pertain to an Irish context and a time when adoption was a more closed concept but they underscore the importance of my amendment in regard to international adoptions and the huge importance of having as much identifying information as possible in the register of foreign adoptions. It is absolutely critical for the child's psychological, physical and mental health that as much data as possible are kept on the register. The amendment has been tabled because it is important that this is put on a statutory footing. If people are not obliged to do this, the information may be lost or it may not be furnished, although standards have improved hugely and that is probably basic information now which is available somewhere. The amendment proposes to formalise the process. The statistics outlined by the Minister of State show why this is important.