Averil Power (Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

As I am sure the Minister of State can imagine, given all the focus on the mother and baby homes and the issue of adoption over the past few weeks, voluntary organisations are being inundated with requests for support from adoptees and their birth relatives and the wider group of people affected by the mother and baby homes. Groups like the Adoption Rights Alliance are trying to help as many people as they can but they have been completely overwhelmed by the number of people who need assistance and who need quite sensitive support and counselling. Those involved are women who may not have talked about some of these issues for a long time, women who went through the homes or who were forced to separate from their children many years ago. Many have not told their families, their husbands or their children, and have dealt with the emotion of all of this by themselves for a long time. Now, they are reaching out for the first time and looking for someone to talk to, but the services simply are not there to help everybody who needs support.
This is the feedback I have been getting very strongly from the different groups involved. Barnardos provides a fantastic service, which is the only independent service for adopted adults and their birth relatives outside the HSE and other State organisations. However, it only has funding from the HSE for one post-adoption services post, which is obviously completely insufficient.
I tabled this matter yesterday and the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs issued a press release today referring to a number of services that are available. He referred to the HSE helpline so I rang that helpline to see whether it was a new service or an existing one. I was told it was the general HSE helpline that is in place to deal with people with different HSE issues but that it can refer people to more specific services. The press release also refers to the Connect free telephone out-of-hours professional service. I understand that service was set up for people who suffered abuse in residential institutions and, again, it would be specialised in dealing with those people who were in the industrial homes. The press release also refers to the national counselling service, which, again, is an existing HSE service which is usually to help survivors of institutional abuse.
My query is whether new services or additional posts are being put in place. The strong feedback I have had in the past week is that the existing services are not sufficient and that people are reaching out for support but not finding the services available to respond to them. In particular, because I was fortunate enough to find my mother and connect with her through Barnardos, I would stress that it has a phenomenally good service to provide people with helpline assistance but also individual one-to-one counselling, which is crucial in these situations. I was shocked to hear it only has one person as a result of cuts in recent years. The Government should step in straight away and provide it with more funding so nobody looking for help has to be turned away.
I want to raise the issue of access to birth certificates. Adopted people in England have had a right to their birth certificates since 1975 but, 40 years later, Irish adoptees still do not have that right. The Taoiseach said last week that introducing such a right in Ireland might require a referendum. I have done a lot of reading into this. I read the main Supreme Court case, which is the I.O'T v. B case, and also the article that was printed on it last week by Dr. Conor O'Mahony, who is a constitutional law expert from Cork. Dr. O'Mahony has argued very persuasively that a referendum is not needed. In fact, he has highlighted sections of the judgment in that case where the court referred to the fact there are, of course, competing rights, for example, the right to privacy of the mother, on the one hand, and the right of the child to an identity, on the other. The court said that neither right was absolute but that it was a job for the Oireachtas - the Members of this House and of the Dáil - to strike that balance. The legislation would benefit from the same presumption of constitutionality as all other legislation when it leaves the Oireachtas, and the courts would only interfere if they felt it was unreasonable. Therefore, the Supreme Court has clearly said to us, as politicians, that it is our job to legislate. I appreciate it is a sensitive issue but that has not stopped other countries from putting in place a system.
It is hard to describe to anybody the hurt, as an adoptee, that comes from not knowing who you are. I did not find my mother for 29 years and did not know my original birth name for 29 years or any of the circumstances in which I was born. It is hard to explain that gap to anybody so all I can say to the Minister of State is that there are thousands of people around the country who have those feelings every day, particularly on birthdays and at Christmas, and have been living with the pain for a long time.

It is long past time for the State to step up and help them.

The basic right of adoptees is the right to a birth certificate. We also need a proactive information, tracing and support service for adoptees and birth relatives, like the service provided by Barnardos, which acted as an intermediary in our case. Barnardos facilitates only a small number of people because it receives HSE funding for only one post. The service should be replicated on a national level so that adoptees who apply to the service for their birth certificates would be offered counselling and have the opportunity to talk through their feelings with a counsellor. If the counselling service were aware of the birth mother's intentions, circumstances and whether or not she wished to be reunited, that could be taken into account.

There has been much scaremongering over recent weeks about adopted people turning up on birth mothers' doorsteps, unwanted, in the middle of the night. We are all sensitive people. All we want to know is who we are. Some adoptees do not wish to reunite, and anyone who does is sensitive to the possibility that finding his or her mother could be a difficult experience for the mother. They appreciate that they do not know the circumstances in which they were born and that there could be great pain associated with it for their mothers. The do not want to make their mothers' lives any more difficult. This cannot be an excuse for a blanket robbery of people's rights to their identities through a ban on birth certificates which does not exist elsewhere.

When people approach birth relatives cold, it is due to the absence of a right to information through the State and proactive support. The only way people can get the information is by hiring private detectives and retracing steps. They find out what town they are from and go around the town asking people if they know Mary X who had a baby in 1973, and suddenly they are standing on the lady's doorstep or writing her a letter. If there were a proper intermediary and support service, this would not happen. A proper service would also be an invaluable support for mothers, who would have somebody to talk to. Some might still decide they do not want to reunite. Yesterday I met with one of the mothers' groups, Adoption Loss, and its members feel that the fact that mothers signed confidentiality agreements is often overstated in public debate. Adoption Loss pointed out that in most cases it worked the other way around, with mothers being forced to sign consent forms and swear oaths saying they would never try to contact their children. They did not seek confidentiality.

While I appreciate that it is a sensitive issue and needs to be handled carefully, I urge the Government to act on all the issues I have outlined. We need a comprehensive response to all this and must finally give people justice for what they have gone through.

Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senator for bringing this very important issue before the Oireachtas and for the clarity with which she has presented the case and outlined her personal circumstances. She speaks on behalf of thousands of people and articulates the need for the State to meet their needs. I am taking this Adjournment matter on behalf of the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy Charles Flanagan.
Following the Government's announcement last week to establish a statutory commission of investigation into the mother and baby homes, the Minister has this morning announced a series of arrangements to provide public access to further information and counselling services for those needing support regarding these issues. These services are operational from today, and full details, together with an update on the cross-departmental work of establishing the commission, are available on the website of the Department of Children and Youth Affairs, www.dcya.gov.ie. The Minister is conscious of the demand for information following the recent disturbing revelations about mother and baby homes. Last week, he directed his officials to work with the HSE on arrangements to ensure that the HSE national information line can assist people seeking information or details of available support. Those seeking such information may telephone the national information line on 1850 24 18 50, Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
There is also an out-of-hours professional counselling and support service where those affected can contact the Connect free telephone service and talk in confidence with a trained counsellor. Connect is an out-of-hours service which is available from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. It normally operates from Wednesday to Sunday, but is currently operating seven evenings per week as part of the response to these issues. The Connect out-of-hours service is contactable at Freefone 1800 477 477 from the Republic of Ireland and 00 800 477 477 77 from Northern Ireland and the UK. The HSE national counselling service is also available to assist those affected. It is a professional, confidential counselling and psychotherapy service that is available free of charge in all regions for adults who have experienced trauma and abuse in childhood, with priority given to adult survivors of institutional abuse. Callers to the HSE National Information Line will be connected to a local service.
The Government is committed to providing as much information as possible to adoptees who seek information regarding their identity. The Government fully appreciates that the desire to know one's identity, or to re-establish contact with a child, is very fundamental, human and entirely reasonable. The Minister for Children and Youth Affairs is pursuing a range of measures, both legislative and administrative, in the area of adoption information and tracing. The constitutional and legal barriers to providing access to adoption records, including birth certificates, without the consent of the birth mother give rise to the need for careful drafting of legislative proposals, and this important work is receiving priority attention from the Minister, Deputy Charles Flanagan. Any legislation in this area is subject to legal and constitutional complexities, balancing the right to identity with a parent's right to privacy where prior parental consent has not been forthcoming. The Minister is committed to going as far as possible through legislation to facilitate improved access.
A great deal can also be done operationally to support any new legislative scheme through, for example, support and counselling to address fears about giving consent to the release of records. The Minister will, as soon as possible, finalise legislative proposals and submit a general scheme and heads of the adoption (information and tracing) Bill to Government. Under the provisions of the Bill, a national tracing service will be established, the operation of which will be subject to guidelines to be set out in regulations. The Bill will also provide for the placing of the national contact preference register on a statutory basis.
Subject to Government approval, it is the Minister's intention to refer the general scheme to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health and Children for its consideration, where the competing issues can be fully debated. It is envisaged that the committee's consideration will include invitations to advocacy groups and interested parties to outline their views. The Minister has indicated that he is looking forward to having an opportunity to engage with Members on the complex issues arising in the proposed legislation. The Minister has asked me to convey his regret that he was unable to attend the Seanad and to thank Senator Power for raising this urgent and important issue. The Minister has indicated that he intends to meet with Opposition spokespersons and a number of key advocacy groups next week on the matter of mother and baby homes.

Averil Power (Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy O'Dowd, for his reply. I appreciate that he was answering on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Charles Flanagan. Could he pass on my query about whether the information services he mentioned are additional? I hope they are, because there is an urgent need for extra services. This is the feedback I am receiving, and the Minister is probably getting similar feedback. There is an urgent need for a properly staffed helpline. Could the Minister of State pass on to him my call for additional funding for Barnardos? It has been doing this for years and has the expertise. In addition to my experience, I have had fantastic feedback from many other adoptees and birth parents who have been through Barnardos. They could not talk more highly of the service. Perhaps I will table the issue on information and tracing again with the Minister because I would like to tease through the legal issues with him. I look forward to the proposals being brought before the Joint Committee on Health and Children. Although I am not a member of the committee, I intend to attend and contribute to the process.

Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I assure the Senator that I will speak to the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy Flanagan, and ask his private secretary to make contact with her immediately to provide the very important clarifications she is seeking.