Michael D Higgins (Galway West, Labour)
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Question 157: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the reason birth certificates for adopted persons are not available from Joyce House in Dublin on the same basis as all other birth certificates; if she will make arrangements to ensure that the same service is available from Joyce House to every citizen regardless of whether they were adopted; her views on whether the different treatment of adopted persons is appropriate; and if she will ensure that there is a full review of the service in order that all of these deficiencies will be eradicated. [34587/09]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The legislative provision governing the registration of domestic adoptions and the issue of birth certificates drawn from the register of adoptions is set out at section 22 of the Adoption Act, 1952.

Under this provision the Registrar General is charged with maintaining an Adopted Children Register and also to maintain an index to make traceable the connection between each entry in the register and the corresponding entry in the register of births. The index is not open to public inspection and no information from it may be given to any person except by order of a Court or of the Adoption Board. A certified copy of an entry in the Adopted Children Register, if purporting to be issued under the seal of Oifig an Ard-Chlaraitheora shall, without further proof, be received as evidence of the facts stated therein and any requirement of law for the production of a certificate of birth shall be satisfied by the production of such certified copy.

Birth certificates for adopted persons are available only from the office of the Registrar General, located in Roscommon. While it is appreciated that this may cause a degree of inconvenience in certain instances the security and confidentiality of the Adopted Children Register is of paramount importance and it is for this reason only that the restriction on availability exists. For this reason also, there are no plans to amend the legislation to change the current arrangements in relation to this matter.

Arrangements are in place to ensure that persons applying to registrars' offices in Dublin and at other locations across the country where certificates of life events may be obtained, will be accommodated without any undue delay. For example, for passport application purposes, a copy of the required certificate will be faxed directly from the GRO to, and be accepted by, the Passport Office.

Responsibility for adoption legislation rests with the Department of Health and Children. An extension of the availability of certificates for adopted persons beyond the single physical repository of the General Register Office would require an amendment to existing adoption legislation or an amendment to new adoption legislation at present being advanced through the Houses of the Oireachtas by that Department.