Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for coming to the House and for the work she has done. This is a very complicated matter and we need to be upfront and truthful with people. I do not believe that this issue is confined to adoption societies. I know of at least two cases where hospitals were involved. It was a very simple procedure. If Ms X went to have a baby and was advised beforehand that Ms Y was going to adopt her baby, she was advised to check in under the name of Ms Y. The registration and all other documentation was done within hospital. I know of cases where people who adopted children understood that everything was done above board and were not in the loop in respect of what was being done in an illegal manner. I stand open to correction, but I understand that even today the identification process in maternity hospitals is still not foolproof. There is nothing preventing what occurred 20, 25 or 30 years ago from happening today.

The Minister may be surprised by what I am saying and I will speak to her after the debate about where I am coming from. I dealt in a legal capacity for four days in the High Court with a particular case where this issue arose. The same happened in other places around the country, including Dublin. It was quite common in cases where pregnant people did not want to keep their babies and were aware of people who might be interested in adopting.All the authorities turned a blind eye to it. Even people in medical and nursing professions were aware of it. This problem is not confined to the adoption societies. It is a broader matter we need to consider. We can go back over hospital records and in particular where people were admitted to hospitals from care facilities such as the Bessborough home in Cork, where young pregnant girls were looked after and admitted to hospital for the delivery of the child. What was the process thereafter? We need to look at those records as well. It is a bigger picture but we are not just talking about adoption societies so we must take that into account.