Mary Seery Kearney (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will speak to amendments Nos. 58 and 59. These relate to the proposal to delete "may" in section 12, to the extent it is practicable to do so, and replace it with "shall". I agree with what Senator Boyhan has said and I thought he would say what I am going to say but I realise that perhaps we disagree. We need to be careful that the language in the statute does not promise material that is not there and that cannot be obtained. We should not be overly prescriptive and we should put in a caveat on expectation to the extent it is practicable to do so. The term "shall provide" puts a mandatory obligation on the provision of something that may not exist or be able to be obtained and in so doing it is reasonable we have a statutory limit on expectations for what can be provided. This is caring language and that is the right thing to do. Senator Boyhan began with this point but one of the features in the opening of the mother and baby home report is that there is considerably less information sitting on file than people may think. The Bill says it "shall provide" a person with a statement setting out his or her early life information. If we use the term "may" instead, that does allow for the fact it may be impossible to do so and that there are individuals for whom no information can be provided because the information was devious misinformation. We have to be careful in our language so that we are ready for that eventuality and so we do not set up an entitlement and expectation that can never be realised or honoured. I agree with everything else that was said. I thought that was what the Senator was about to say.