Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the House. He will know the volume of distress and concern this matter has caused. He spoke about learning from the past and moving into the future, but we are not yet at a point where we are talking about simply learning from the past. We are still seeking justice, satisfaction and basic rights for those who lived through that past. They are still with us. Their families and their children who were adopted through the systems in place at that time are still seeking identity. People are still trying to find out whether they have siblings and where their siblings may have been buried. People are still trying to find out basic information about who they are and who their families were. The Minister has the dual task of vindicating the rights of those affected by these issues and of national archiving. I have submitted more than 20 amendments which address some of the key issues. We speak about having our hands tied by legislation from 2004. I disagree completely with Senator McDowell. I know he was involved in that legislation but it does not necessarily trump developments that have taken place since 2004. For example, we had a constitutional referendum which placed the rights of the child, including the right to identity, at a central point. We also have European legislation on people's right to information about themselves. I will ask that sections 39 and 41 of the 2004 Act, which deal with restrictions on the right of the individual to seek information and the 30-year binding rule, respectively, should not apply to individuals seeking information about themselves.

We talk about future commissions and safeguarding participation. It is unacceptable that people are being denied their own testimony, which is gut-wrenching to give. I have looked for specific exceptions to ensure that people can access their own testimony and story. Not giving that basic right will undermine the operation of future commissions and co-operation by future witnesses.

We need a timeline. We all heard the apology made to the victims of the Magdalen laundries, which feels as if it was millions of years ago. We have not had justice. It has been a scrabble for individuals to try to have peace in their own families and lives. We need to know when there will be legislation that guarantees appropriate access to the right to information and the right to identity. There is an issue with Tusla. The Minister stated this information will be preserved but there is nothing in the Bill to indicate how it will be preserved. How do we know the records will not be scatter-shot back to whatever filing cabinets they came from originally? That is a fear. Patching together the stories of people's lives involves substantial work. Will these records be kept to an archival standard? I ask because, as we know, the Adoption Authority of Ireland had made plans to keep documents to an archival standard. There are real questions about the physical documents and rights and we will push them on Committee Stage. I urge the Minister not to take Committee and Report Stages together but listen to us on Committee Stage and change the Bill.