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

I thank Senators for their contributions. I reiterate that we want to do everything we can to ensure that the process, which is currently very onerous, is very much simplified. I also reassure Senator Power in particular that the Bill we are preparing is not only about prospective adoptions but also about current adoptions and the people who are in the situation the Senator so eloquently described. It would be wrong of me to ignore the situation.

Many people have referred to I.O'T. v. B. I will read directly from the advice. It noted that the decision of I.O'T. v. B. was not in fact about an adopted person but about two informal or de facto adopted people who remained at law the children of the birth mothers. The Chief Justice had pointed out in his judgment that he did not consider that the applicants were in the same legal position as adopted children. As detailed on page two of that opinion, Mr. Justice Hamilton pointed out that the effect of an adoption order is that all parental rights and duties of the natural parent are ended while the child becomes a member of the family of the adoptive parents as if he or she had been their natural child.

I refer to that for clarity. The Government wants to do everything it can in this situation and will be advised and interpret, in the widest way it can, the situation in order to facilitate people. We have the adoption contact preference register and we will propose that it become much more proactive, rather than the current situation whereby people have to wait for somebody else to register on it. The mothers whose children were adopted in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s have not come forward, even if only to provide important medical information to the children they had to give up, in the numbers for which we had hoped.

I would encourage those mothers to consider making contact with Tusla or the Adoption Authority of Ireland where they will be afforded confidentiality, care and empathy. It is to be hoped they will feel able to assist their birth children in finding out from where they came. To date, however, only 3,000 of the 11,000 people on the register are mothers. Today is another opportunity for us to highlight this register and the facility available.

I will not oppose the amendment. I am anxious to improve the legal basis for access to adoption records, but my proposals to Government will have to reflect the constraints on the Legislature in providing such access if they are not to fall foul of constitutional challenge. The Office of the Attorney General has provided comprehensive legal advice to my Department that has assisted in identifying the constitutional parameters within which the heads of the Bill have to be drafted. It is on the basis of that legal advice that there is a need to take into consideration the constitutional right to privacy of the birth mother in the situation of adoption.

For further reassurance, this Bill is being actively progressed and I hope to bring it to the Government in April.