Written answers

Tuesday, 19 February 2013

Department of Children and Youth Affairs

Adoption Services

Photo of Sandra McLellanSandra McLellan (Cork East, Sinn Fein)
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To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs if she will ensure that persons who spent time in Besborough House in Cork and other such institutions around the country be given access to their records for the time they spent there; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [8687/13]

Photo of Frances FitzgeraldFrances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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The HSE Regional Adoption Services has taken responsibility for the adoption files of the Sacred Heart Adoption Society in respect of homes in Bessborough, Co. Cork; St Peters, Castlepollard, Co. Westmeath and Sean Ross Abbey, Roscrea, Co. Tipperary. I have been advised by the HSE that the files have been transferred to the HSE in their entirety. Queries are being dealt with in the HSE Regional Adoption Department in order that enquirers can be offered a meeting with a social worker/counsellor to deal with requests as promptly as possible. The HSE is responding to individual queries and encourages anyone seeking their personal data to communicate directly with the HSE South Adoption Unit, St Stephens Hospital, Glanmire, Co.Cork (tel. 021 4858650).

Work is continuing in relation to the preparation of the Adoption (Information and Tracing) Bill. The proposed Bill will provide for a structured and regulated approach to providing access to adoption information and will facilitate contact for those affected by adoption, including in circumstances where an adoption order was not effected.

It is intended that the Bill will provide for the Adoption Authority to have access to all adoption records. The Bill will provide for a National Index of Adoption Records to be maintained by the Adoption Authority containing information as to where all known adoption records are located within the State. It is envisaged that only the Authority, the HSE and accredited bodies will hold adoption records, with the Authority having overall charge of those records.

It is also intended that the Bill will provide for placing the National Contact Preference Register on a statutory basis. The purpose of the Register is to allow persons affected by adoption to register their names with a view to receiving information about a person from whom they have been separated as a result of adoption and will allow for registering a preference, as to whether or not, they want to have contact with that person.

A National Tracing Service will be established, the operation of which will be subject to guidelines which will be set out in regulations. It is intended that the Tracing Service will be made available to adopted persons, birth parents and relatives with the Adoption Authority having the overarching responsibility for the service.

Complex issues have arisen during the course of the preparation of the Bill including the criteria for balancing an adopted person's right to information about his or her identity as against a birth parent's right to privacy. My own view is that persons affected by adoption should be provided with as much information as possible within permissible Constitutional boundaries.

Consideration of legal and policy issues is ongoing and once these have been satisfactorily resolved, I intend to seek Government approval to publish the Heads of Bill. It is my intention to bring this Bill before the Houses of the Oireachtas in 2013.

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