Fintan Warfield (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Leas-Chathaoirleach will see that Sinn Féin opposes section 2 outright. Obviously, we are discussing the deposit of certain records of the commission with the Child and Family Agency, Tusla. In terms of opposing this section outright, we wish to see Tusla removed as the depository for records and that we reassert the 2004 Act provisions for the depositing of records with the Minister and the right of access to personal information to be held by the Minister.

Will the Minister reiterate the point about why the records are being broken up? Why are some suitable to be held by his Department and others not? As I mentioned, Sinn Féin objects to Tusla having guardianship over some of the records. Many of the survivors offered testimony. Their testimony is contained in these records and they have had their own negative experiences of dealing with the agency, especially concerning adoption matters.Along with Deputies Mitchell and Funchion, I have sat with the former Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Katherine Zappone, to discuss the negative experiences people have had with Tusla concerning access to the family name. This has added to the trauma of many survivors. Our amendment simply strikes out the section referring to Tusla. It is not beyond the ability of the Oireachtas to legislate for how anonymised and voluntarily offered testimony and details could be used for interpretive and historical scholarship reasons. Many survivors do not trust Tusla to handle the records. Specifically, at a future point some survivors may wish to voluntarily grant their records and testimony to interpretive projects that they deem acceptable. This could all be underpinned by legislation to ensure that those who wish to remain anonymous forever can have that wish respected.

In September, the general scheme of the Bill and associated briefing paper referred to 11 institutions whose associated records would be lodged with Tusla. The ministerial briefing with the Bill mentions 15 institutions. What process was undertaken to decided which other institutions would be added?

I add my voice to the concerns expressed about the process today. We were due to table an amendment to the Order of Business. As it turned out, we supported Senator McDowell's amendment to take only Committee Stage today. I made the point then that the purpose of having Report Stage at a separate sitting is for the Seanadóirí, the Minister and his officials to consider all the amendments, even those defeated today, in the intervening period. In the past, Ministers have considered defeated Committee Stage amendments and brought forward their own amendments on Report Stage. We have been abusing how this House functions with many Bills of late.