Colette Kelleher (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister. It is great that we are listening to each other today. The Minister's statement was most encouraging and our debate is in the context of the Adoption (Information and Tracing) Bill, which is rightly getting a great deal of our attention. The Bill itself is an existential matter for people who were adopted, either by force, legally or illegally. It is about identity for the adoptees and their children's children. In that balancing equation, that group of people also need to be taken into consideration by the Attorney General and others. Of course, we need to have due regard and compassion for the natural mothers as well.

Serious issues have been raised by a range of different people and groups, including adoptees themselves, the Adoption Rights Alliance, Council of Irish Adoption Agencies, Aitheantas, Irish Association of Social Work, and Irish Council for Civil Liberties. Like the Minister, we have received hundreds of emails on this Bill. There is a fundamental concern that Senator Marie-Louise O'Donnell outlined in detail about the conflation of information and tracing. They are not the same and need to be separated. That is one of the fundamental jobs we need to do in improving the Bill. Advocates such as Mairead Enright, Maeve O'Rourke and Fred Logue have flagged key issues to which we should pay attention. The Adoption Rights Alliance cited their deep opposition to the Government’s approach in a letter circulated to Members yesterday, which I am sure the Minister has seen. The letter raises the restrictions on access to birth certificates; the censorship of files; and that no rights to information provided for natural mothers or relatives of the deceased are provided for in the Bill. Only last week, Mairead Enright reminded us that we need to consider this Bill in the context of "reproductive justice" in Ireland, the lack of which was so painfully and so graphically recalled again last weekend by Majella Moynihan, in case we have forgotten. That is the context in which this Bill is being debated.Ms Enright also raised concerns about Tusla, about which Senator Marie-Louise O'Donnell spoke at length. She said it was not clear how adopted people's rights would be safeguarded by the process, especially given Tusla's poor history. It is vital to pause and tease out the role and functions envisaged for Tusla in the Bill and its suitability, capability and competence in performing them.

It is welcome that yesterday the Minister met some of the stakeholders and listened to their concerns and that she met Senators last week. However, complex issues related to the Bill need further reflection, dialogue and consideration. I am grateful that the Minister and her officials will continue to engage with and listen to the individuals concerned. Will the findings of the collaborative forum on mother and baby homes which presented its work to the Minister in December 2018 be published? That would be useful to us as Senators to make the Bill as good as it needs to be.

We need to pause. There were pauses in the development of the domestic violence legislation that helped to improve it. The offence of coercive control was put in the Statute Book because we had paused and thought the matter through. We will do the same in dealing with this important Bill. It is important to give Senators and advocacy organisations time to come forward with concrete proposals such as Senator Bacik's proposal for opting in and others in development by the Adoption Rights Alliance and others. There are also good things in the Bill such as the strengthened powers of the Adoption Authority of Ireland. We need to keep the best, but we also need to make changes on the points raised with us.

I thank the Minister for listening. We can and will have a good law for adoptees. This is a pause, rather than a stop, which will enable us to make better law for adoptees, their children and their children's children, as well as natural mothers.