Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Question 85: To ask the Minister for Health and Children the reason for the decline in issuing original birth certificates to adopted persons when requested from 97% in 2005 to 37% in 2009 from the independent Adoption Board; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [28840/10]

Barry Andrews (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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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. It is a matter for the Adoption Board, which is an independent quasi judicial body, to treat each application it receives in this regard on its individual merits. I am aware that the treatment of adopted persons in this regard differs from the rest of the population but consideration of this issue must take place 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.

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. In this regard, the policy position is currently being assessed by my Office. Once this process is complete Government approval will be sought to commence the process of preparing legislation.