Averil Power (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 1:

In page 6, line 35, after “the” where it secondly occurs to insert the following:“name (or, if the person has been known during his or her life by more than one name, current and former names), date of birth and ”.

This amendment is designed to make it clear that data relating to the birth, placement of adoption, procurement of adoption and adoption of the adopted person, where referred to in the Bill, will include the names, former names and dates of birth of the natural parents. This information is important to enable adoptees to establish the identity of their natural parents where the parents have a common name. Let us suppose adoptees are only given a parent's name without the rest of this information. If the name is unusual, then the adoptees could readily trace the identity of their parents.

Many of these records are publicly available. I carried out a search last week. I had the name of an individual. I was able to get the birth certificate with the mother's name on it as well as all of those details straight away because the individual has an unusual name and was the only person with that name born within a ten-year period. However, someone could be in a different situation whereby the mother has a common name, for example, Mary Murphy or Mary O'Brien. There may have been several births within a short period to women of the name in question and, therefore, only having the name is of limited value. We have tabled the amendment to ensure that adoptees can get access to the other information recorded on the register of births to assist them in establishing the identity of their natural parents.