Ivana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

My apologies but I should have repeated something that I said on the Order of Business earlier today, namely, that given the lateness of the publication of the Minister's amendments on Monday night, Labour Party Senators had not tabled any amendments. We wanted to wait and see what the Government amendments would contain and did not want to submit duplicate amendments. That said, I reserve the right to table amendments on Report Stage. Indeed, one of the amendments that we may table, once we have had time to review everything, is to section 1(2) which currently provides for the coming into operation of the legislation. That is the provision that could usefully be used to provide for a time period within which the State could conduct an extensive advertising campaign to alert all interested parties to the coming into effect of an unfettered right of access to birth certificates and other information about a person's adoption. The provision as it stands would give space for that to be done by the Government. As I said, that is just one mechanism that might be used as an alternative approach to the one proposed in the Government's amendments to ensure that there is some recognition of privacy rights but not at the expense of individuals' right of access to their own information.

I would add, in terms of what Senator Norris has said, that it is unfortunate that we have rushed straight from the publication of the amendments on Monday night into the commencement of Committee Stage now. It appears that groups like the Adoption Rights Alliance, the Association of Social Workers and others have not had an opportunity to consult with the Minister or with Senators, other than in the very short period of time since we had sight of the amendments and the start of this debate 20 minutes ago. That is unfortunate timing and it is just as well that we are not going to have a five-hour debate this evening in that sort of vacuum. As a result, we are going to see more amendments tabled on Report Stage than might otherwise have been necessary. Ms Susan Lohan of the Adoption Rights Alliance, in an email I received earlier today, referred to the labyrinthine nature of the new processes provided for in the Government's amendments. There is no doubt but that these are complex technical amendments and the new processes that would be provided for are as cumbersome and unwieldy as those that pertained previously. This is something that I said on Second Stage over two years ago, that the process provided for in Part 5 of the Bill seems to be unnecessarily cumbersome. I do not think that has changed with the new provisions in the amendments which we will be debating individually. I just wanted to make that general point about timing and to reserve the right to submit amendments on behalf of Labour Party Senators on Report Stage.