Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will take note of it. Under the GDPR, consent must be given for the release of information. Explicit consent must be obtained from a third party before his or her personal information can be shared. This means that, as things stand, if Tusla is unable to locate the birth mother, for example, the requested information cannot be released to the adoptee. The Bill provides that where a birth parent is unlocatable, the information can be released.

Tusla cannot release non-identifying information. It is hampered by the GDPR, even in the release of third party information, although, on the face of it, it is non-identifying, for example, general information on a person's county of birth, occupation, hair, eye colour and so forth. Prior to the introduction of the GDPR, Tusla provided general information for applicants. For example, an adoptee could have been told that his or her birth mother had brown hair and blue eyes and come from Galway. I understand that was really important; of course, it was. It would be important to me if I was in that position, but that information is no longer being provided. I could give more examples, but I wanted to share those examples from the recent past with the Seanad to show that, without a law, current efforts to provide an information and tracing service in Tusla are being hampered.

I have heard the questions and concerns about confidence in Tusla. My view is that some of it is related to the resources it will require when this law is in place. That is critical and it is important that we all continue to say it.

Some Senators referred to the following, as I did. It is important for me, as Minister, to seek and rely on the advice of the Attorney General. I have a lot of information, from a constitutional perspective, that I could lay out for Senators if it is important, although, because they are law makers, it is not as important. Under Article 30 of the Constitution, the Attorney General is the legal adviser to the Government on matters of law. The Attorney General advises the Government and is the chief law officer of the State. Article 15.4.1° of the Constitution states, "The Oireachtas shall not enact any law which is in any respect repugnant to this Constitution or any provision thereof". The Attorney General provides me with advice in that regard and, as Minister, I am duty bound to follow it. That is why we try to continue to engage with the Office of the Attorney General in a way that, while respecting it, we still put forward views, arguments and the concerns of other law makers and advocates directly to it. The Attorney General allows them to feed into the way in which he interprets the important issues he must consider in this case.When I spoke to him this morning he said that he would continue to do that. He knows what we are doing right now and it is very important. As I said before, he is paying attention.

The last thing I am going to say concerns time, rhythm and taking one step at a time. It is not a straightforward path. How do we get the rhythm right?