Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

The effect of the amendment, as proposed, is to insert a clause into section 10. The amendment would require that where no birth information is available upon application by an affected person, the authority must seize all records and conduct an investigation into what transpired. We had a fairly significant discussion during the last debate on the Bill on a similar amendment put forward by the Senator and Senator Higgins. We teased out some of the issues. This amendment seeks to provide that the AAI would seize any available records and open an investigation in a scenario where no birth information is found.The legislation only requires that where a relevant body has no records available, the relevant body must inform the applicant of this fact in writing without delay. The concern in this scenario is that an applicant would be met with a mere letter noting there is no available information and nothing more. Senator Higgins and others have expressed what that would mean to an affected person seeking information.

I cannot accept this amendment, because as I said about the previous amendment, I cannot accept it, as currently drafted. First, section 63 provides for the agency and the authority to provide support to relevant persons, and this support can extend to assisting a person in identifying where their records are held. In addition, the section provides for the agency and the authority to provide support to a person making an application to a contact preference register and the tracing service.

Having reflected on the discussion the previous day and having reflected on what other colleagues have said on this issue, we may be able to look at bringing forward an amendment on Report Stage that would make it clear that where no information is available that it will be explicitly made clear to the relevant person in the letter conveying that how they access the contact preference register in undertaking a search there and how they access the tracing service. Other routes are available and while it might not get them the original documentation, rather than them just receiving a letter saying there is no information, it would clearly signpost the pathways that are already there. I will ask officials to look to see if something can be done that would make that clearer in the direct response that relevant people receive where no information is available.

As Senator Boyhan has made clear, we do have to be careful about expectation management. At the end of this process, there are probably going to be thousands of disappointed adopted people and people who were boarded out and while we cannot overestimate what we can provide in terms of documents, other processes exist. Senator Boyhan is correct: there is a process to bring together records. Part of the legislative provisions allow the AAI to begin the process of bringing records within its custody. My Department is already doing that in respect of getting health records and records from other areas as well. That is why we hired an archivist in my Department.

As Members will be aware, we made an announcement about a national records and memorial centre and work is advancing in that area as well. In the longer term, I hope that is where these documents could be accessed. We made a very clear decision in the context of this legislation that we would not ask people to wait until a national records centre is set up because that is a long-term project. Once the three-month period has passed, people will be able to access information under this legislation. We all recognise that is the priority, namely, quick access to information. I hope that provides some information and perhaps some comfort to the Senators.