Averil Power (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will be brief, as we want to get through all of the amendments today. I will pick up the Minister's point on the I. O'T v. B case. According to him, the court had acknowledged that the current legislative position as opposed to constitutional position was that, on the making of an adoption order, the link between the birth mother and child was severed. While that is true, that is the legislative position under the Adoption Act. When I. O'T v. B case was decided, there was no legislation on the adoptee's right to an identity as we are proposing now. Any future Supreme Court decision will be made in light of this Bill once passed. The situation that the Minister mentioned was established by legislation, not the Constitution, and can therefore be changed by legislation like that we are proposing.