Lynn Ruane (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Amendment No. 69 seeks to delete section 17 as authored and to substitute it with a new section that replaces the mandatory information session with a registered letter that sets out information regarding the contact preferences of each relevant parent. The suggestion to substitute a register letter was recommended. A considerable amount of discussion and thought went into attempts to find that compromise at the Joint Committee on Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth. Such an amendment was first tabled in the Dáil by Deputy Bacik with the intention of making access to birth certificates and other relevant information by relevant persons unconditional.

Section 17 currently provides that to access certain information, an applicant or relevant person must first attend an information session with a designated person. This provision is problematic, as the Minister knows, for many people involved as it makes access to certain information, including birth certificates, by a relevant person conditional on his or her attending an information session. This section of the Bill is a red-line issue for stakeholders and survivor groups and its replacement has been debated at length. The Joint Committee on Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth recommended during pre-legislative scrutiny that the information session be replaced with an appropriate alternative such as the sending of a registered letter to all applicants irrespective of whether their birth parent had expressed a preference regarding contact which advises of the circumstances surrounding the contact preferences.

The Minister will be aware of the views held by stakeholders and survivor groups in respect of this provision. I encourage him to consider the alternative provided by these amendments.