Marie Moloney (Labour) | Oireachtas source

As with Senator Mooney, I have great admiration for Senator van Turnhout. She works tirelessly on behalf of children and has, at every given opportunity in the House, raised the plight of children. I have listened today to two compelling arguments on the same subject. It is very hard to say one is right and the other wrong because, as Senator van Turnhout said, the certificate is an official document. Should we weigh up whether we are obliged to include the true facts in an official document? We must take into consideration the views of the parents adopting the child. Adoptive parents are not pulled out of the sky; they must go through a rigorous vetting system and they are scrutinised to ascertain whether they are worthy of adopting a child. Anybody who has adopted a child will know that. We cannot take away from the rights of adoptive parents. It is their right to bring up the child as they see fit and to tell the child it is adopted. When is a good age to tell the child? Is it when the child comes out of the cradle or when he or she is making his or her communion or confirmation? When does one decide the time at which a child should know he or she is adopted? Until a child is 16 or 18, he or she is under the care of the adoptive parents. Consider what happens if he or she goes to the doctor and a medical history is required. Including that one is adopted on one's birth certificate does not amount to giving a medical history. One really needs to know the identity of one's true parents to get one's medical history.

I do not know whether the Minister of State is accepting this amendment but I do not believe we should just write it off. This matter requires much wider debate. I commend Senator van Turnhout on raising this because it needs to be discussed. As Senators Walsh and Mooney said, we really need to go into greater detail on this in a wider forum to ensure we get it right.

Senator van Turnhout said she could not comprehend what it must be like not to know the history of one's family on one side. I am in that position. I do not know anything about my father's parents or grandparents because he was adopted. I know exactly what the Senator was speaking about. I have said before in the House on a number of occasions that, until the day my father died, at 55 years of age, he never spoke about his having been adopted. He would not speak to us about it when we were young. Unfortunately, he died suddenly when we were approaching adulthood and could speak to him about such matters. We never really got to know his family background or the medical history of his family. Therefore, I know what it is like not to know one's family history. It is nice to know this history, where one came from and who one's grandparents were. Unfortunately, I know what it is like not to know.