Michael D Higgins (Galway West, Labour)
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Question 63: To ask the Minister for Health and Children her plans to introduce tracing mechanisms for adopted persons by way of amendment to the Adoption Bill; if not, if and when she will introduce separate legislation for this purpose; if work has already commenced on the drafting of such amendments and legislation; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [20194/10]

Barry Andrews (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The Adoption Bill, 2009, is designed to give force of law to the Hague Convention on the Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Inter-country Adoption. The new legislation, which incorporates the provisions of the Hague Convention, is designed to provide a framework to ensure that appropriate procedures have been followed and that all adoptions are effected in the best interests of the child. Future intercountry adoption arrangements will be governed by the terms of the Adoption Bill 2009 when enacted.

Registration of domestic adoptions is governed by Section 22 of the Adoption Act 1952. Under that provision, an tArd Chlaraitheoir (Registrar General) is required to maintain a register of domestic adoptions (i.e. adoptions effected in Ireland, regardless of where the adopted person was born). The register is called the Adopted Children Register. An index to the register is maintained and can be searched by any person. Any person may obtain a copy of any entry in the register. The legislation also provides for an index linking the birth entry in the register of births (in the case of an Irish-born adopted person) with the entry in the Adopted Children Register. Information from this index may not be given to any person except by order of a court or the Adoption Board. The Adoption Bill 2009, which will consolidate existing adoption legislation, does not seek to make new proposals in this regard.

Since 2003, when an adoption legislation consultation paper was published by the then Minister for Children, two pieces of legislation were envisaged. The first to provide for the ratification of the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption and to make changes to the role and structure of the Adoption Board and the second to provide for a structured and regulated way of providing access to information and contact for those affected by adoption. I indicated during the Committee Stage of the Adoption Bill, 2009, at the Select Committee on Health and Children my intention to bring forward legislation specifically on the issue of information and tracing. The question of introducing these new legislative provisions is under consideration in the context of the complex legal, ethical and constitutional issues arising from the need to fairly balance the rights of all parties to the adoption process.