James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Seanad for the opportunity to debate this important matter. I thank Senators Power, van Turnhout and Healy Eames for the time and effort they put into developing this Private Members’ Bill, as well as to Dr. Fergus Ryan, the legal expert who provided assistance in this process.

It is often the case legal instruments lag behind current thinking in a particular domain. This is especially true for adoption. My predecessor has already decided not to oppose a Private Members’ Bill proposed by Deputy Anne Ferris dealing with open adoption. At that time it was noted the practice was for more open adoption arrangements, even though Irish adoption legislation did not provide for it. I do not intend to oppose this Bill either.

The history of adoption in Ireland and worldwide means that it is often portrayed in a very negative light. We should be mindful, however, that many have had a positive experience of adoption. I recently attended the annual conference of the International Adoption Association, an Irish support group for Irish prospective adopters involved in inter-country adoption. Presentations were made at that conference by four adopted people and by a family who had adopted several children. P.J. Gallagher, the well-known, newspaper-wielding comedian, was one of those adoptees. All asked that the positive aspects of adoption be highlighted. All stated the love of their adopted parents was the most important thing in their lives.

The most appropriate and ideal scenario is that a child is reared by its natural parents. We also have to recognise, however, that where that is not possible, appropriate long-term placement solutions have to include adoption. This includes children placed here through intercountry adoption who may otherwise spend long periods of their lives in residential or care settings that do not afford the loving and nurturing environment that a permanent family care setting can bring. Many of those seeking information about their natural parents have emphasised the support they got from their adoptive parents in their quest for information. Senator Healy Eames made that very clear earlier. We must all be mindful of the responsibilities of adoptive parents in regard to assisting children when they start to ask questions about their background and identity.

I have also met many people who have been adversely affected by the adoption regime that existed in Ireland in the last century. These include people who discovered late in life that the people they thought were their birth parents were in fact not. There are people who, decades later, still have not been able to reconnect with a birth parent or child. There are women who never saw the baby they delivered. There are women who had no option, regrettably, but to give up a baby whose loss they would mourn for the rest of their lives. There are many women who simply had their babies taken from them.

The statistical evidence of the national adoption contact preference register is that mothers whose children were adopted in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s have not come forward in significant numbers, even if only to provide important medical information to the child they had to give up. Since I became Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, I have met many adoption groups and heard many painful stories of how young mothers were bullied and cajoled as their babies were taken from them. They were led to believe they would be in breach of the law of God and man if they ever tried to make contact with their child. With this in mind, I strongly encourage those mothers to contact the Adoption Authority of Ireland to assist with the provision of medical information. I also encourage them to consider making contact with Tusla, or the Adoption Authority of Ireland, where they will be afforded confidentiality, care and empathy, as well as the opportunity to get professional counselling about a period of their life that I am sure still causes them pain.

I have asked officials in my Department to examine the Adoption (Identity and Information) Bill 2014. There is much to commend in it. Regarding the areas of concern it addresses, it is very much in line with the tenor of the draft Bill being prepared in my Department. However, the regime envisaged in the Private Members’ Bill differs in that it does not differentiate between prospective and retrospective adoptions. In that respect, it does not address the complex constitutional issues that arise in the provision of identifying information to those who were adopted under the Adoption Act 1952.

I envisage a comprehensive restructuring of the adoption information and tracing service including the following matters which go beyond the provisions of this Private Members’ Bill: it will set out the information to be provided and circumstances in which it can be provided both for retrospective and prospective adoptions; it will set out arrangements for the management of adoption records; place the national adoption contact preference register on a statutory basis; and provide for information and tracing supports.

My overall policy objective in bringing forward proposed legislation on adoption information and tracing has always been to provide people affected by adoption with access to as much information as possible. I intend to be explicit about the information that will have to be retained for future adoptions. I will ensure that, on reaching adulthood, any person whose adoption is registered in Ireland will have access to identifying information. This will require a radical overhaul of the Adoption Act 2010. In future adoptions, birth parents and prospective adoptive parents will be aware from the outset that, on reaching adulthood, an adopted person will be provided with full identifying information on request.

It is clear any legal measures will have to be supported by improved processes and services to facilitate people affected by adoption to have greater access to birth records where the law permits it. All records relating to adoption, including less formal care arrangements that operated historically, will be managed and maintained on a statutory basis in a secure and appropriate fashion.

I intend to put the national contact preference register on a statutory basis. This will secure the register in the future, provide consistency in the information gathered for the register and will allow the register to operate proactively. The issue of inter-country adoption and future tracing needs for those children adopted from outside Ireland will need careful consideration. Since 1991, nearly 50% of all adoptions processed by the Adoption Authority of Ireland were inter-country adoptions.

These children become Irish citizens, and it is imperative that every effort is made to ensure their access to identifying information when they ask for it. The Senators' Bill also provides for counselling for persons involved in the information and tracing process. I assure Senators that counselling is central to current and future service provision.

It is critical that everyone affected by adoption who approaches the Adoption Authority, the Child and Family Agency, or accredited service providers is offered appropriate support and is treated with sensitivity and understanding. Counselling is provided by professional staff and is often provided long after the tracing process has been addressed, because adoption is a lifelong story. In the legislation I am preparing I intend to ensure that counselling and support is offered to everyone who needs and wants it.

The legal advice I have received indicates that a right to know one's identity flows from the legal relationship between a birth mother and her child. However, the effect of an adoption order is to restrict that right to know. Thus, there is a difficulty surrounding the notion that a birth mother's constitutional right to privacy can be dispensed with or retrospectively changed by new legislation. The proposed adoption (tracing and information) Bill 2014 will be explicit on the information that must be provided for all future adoptions. All who consent to an adoption will be fully aware of the information that will be available to an adopted person, on request, once he or she reaches 18 years of age.

In regard to adoptions that have taken place in the past, the issue is far more complex. I am advised that the proposed legislation can provide for retrospective identifying information to be given to an adopted person, but some restrictions must apply in relation to birth mothers who wish to protect their right to privacy. I look forward to working with the Senators to progress this issue.

The Department will continue to engage with the Office of the Attorney General in finalising the legislation on adoption information and tracing being prepared by the Department. As soon as this work is concluded I intend to seek Government approval to refer the general scheme and heads of the adoption (tracing and information) Bill to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health and Children for consideration.

The programme for Government contains a commitment to enact legislation to consolidate and reform the law on adoption. The constitutional referendum on children incorporated an important provision proposing to amend the Irish Constitution to widen the scope for the adoption of children of marriage in Ireland. To coincide with this referendum, a general scheme and heads of a draft adoption (amendment) Bill 2012 was published. This showed, using the format of a detailed Bill, the Government's legislative proposals in the event that the amendment of the Constitution is passed. Senators are aware that there are outstanding proceedings in the courts that prevent the finalisation of the constitutional amendment. It is my intention to introduce the adoption (amendment) Bill to facilitate the adoption of children of marriage as soon as these constitutional matters are completed. Furthermore, the issue of step-parent adoption is under review, and I hope it can be addressed in the context of the children and family relationships Bill. The policy intention is to include provisions for step-parent adoption without requiring a child's mother or father to also adopt his or her own child.

I commend all those who have heightened the recent focus on adoption and issues related to the historic care of children. The efforts of Deputy Anne Ferris and Senators Power, van Turnhout and Healy Eames have done much to inform the debate. They and others have highlighted the fact that adopted persons have a lifelong and evolving adoption story and the need for adopted persons to investigate that story. My priority is to enact adoption legislation following from the children's referendum and to provide for legislation on adoption information and tracing. In line with the commitment in the programme for Government, it is timely that a review of adoption law more generally takes place with a view to its modernisation.

I hope that this review, my own consideration of the Act, submissions received from stakeholders and the contents of the Bills proposed by Senators Power, van Turnhout and Healy Eames, and Deputy Anne Ferris previously, will all inform the reform process for adoption legislation in Ireland. Consideration of all these issues by the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health and Children will greatly facilitate progress on this very important component of the modernisation of adoption law. I know this issue causes a lot of pain and I know the great need people have to know their identity. I look forward to working with the Senators to progress this. I thank all the Senators, but in particular Senator Power for her contribution to and work on the Bill. No one can doubt her commitment, courage or sincerity on this issue.