Averil Power (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister's understanding of the issue. My concern is that in the absence of the provision, there is no trigger.With regard to passports, my understanding of it is that one's birth certificate is needed for the first passport but if one's parent gets one a passport as a child and one seeks to renew, a birth certificate is not needed for the renewal. These days people travel. When I got a passport at the age of 18, which I applied for in my own right, we had never travelled as a family outside the State but that would be unusual now. Unless somebody is getting married, they would look for the birth certificate. In my scenario, and prior to 2010, one would know at least at that point that one was adopted, if one had not been told previously, whereas now there is no trigger whatsoever. That is deeply worrying.

We can return to this issue in regard to the adoption legislation. I become concerned when I hear various Ministers referring to the Government's intended adoption legislation because we have not seen it. I take the opportunity to remind the Minister, Deputy Fitzgerald, although I am sure she needs no reminding, that this House passed all Stages of our Adoption (Identity and Information) Bill. I know it would be the hope of Members on all sides of this House - Government Members have told me this and have said on the record of the House - that the Government would progress that Bill and not wait to develop the heads of a new Bill and go through that entire process, because we have only a year left to run and there is goodwill on all sides of this House for the adoption identity and information issue to be dealt with. I take the opportunity to mention that because I know the Minister has a personal interest in this area.