Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)
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Question 790: To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs if there is a specific general policy in place whereby the Health Service Executive is obliged to facilitate access to the information contained in adoption records after the adopted persons have reached adulthood; the measures or procedures that are currently in place to facilitate such access; her plans to create a centralised records archive for adoption files in order that those who are the subject of such records may more easily access information pertaining to their cases; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [22944/11]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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The drafting of legislation with regard to Information and Tracing is a priority of mine. Work is underway in relation to the preparation of the Bill, in consultation with the Adoption Authority, to provide for a structured and regulated way of providing access to information and contact for those affected by adoption. I intend to take this legislation through the Houses of the Oireachtas in due course.

The National Adoption Contact Register was established in 2005 to assist adopted people and their natural families to make contact with each other, exchange information or state their contact preferences. They decide, through a range of information and contact options, how they wish to proceed. Already 440 matches have been made on the Register representing over 900 individuals who have now received a service. The operation of the Register was reviewed in 2007 and a major upgrading of it has just been completed.

The then Adoption Board, together with the adoption societies, the HSE and the adoption support groups, developed the "Standardised Framework for the Provision of a National Information and Tracing Service". This was published in November 2007 and sets standards and provides guidance and advice for information and tracing services providers nationally.

The issue of a centralised register is not currently under active consideration but such a development may receive attention in the context of the drafting of the legislation referred to above.