Clare Daly (Dublin North, Socialist Party)
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35. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs if, in view of the recent apology given by the Australian Prime Minister to the victims of illegal adoptions carried out in that country in the 1960s, if an inquiry will be established into the illegal adoptions carried out here in the post 1952 period when adoption legislation was in force. [21658/13]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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The issue in Ireland of illegal adoptions relates to illegal registrations, i.e. children who were given at birth to other individuals who registered these children as their own and who are now unable to access personal records and information. I have met with individuals who have found themselves in these circumstance and I acknowledge and empathise with the dilemma that these individuals are addressing. Efforts have been made by the Adoption Authority of Ireland and the HSE, within their legal remit, to facilitate the investigations that these individuals are undertaking in endeavouring to establish medical and/or identifying information about themselves. Further efforts are required to move beyond that and endeavour to trace birth parents, children and or siblings who are affected by this issue.

In consultation with the AAI and the HSE, my Department is examining legislative and administrative options in relation to accessing records which may exist. I am also examining provisions in this regard in the forthcoming Adoption (Information and Tracing) Bill. I have recently received further legal advice from the Office of the Attorney General in regard to complex legal and constitutional issues which have arisen during the course of drafting the Heads of Bill. These issues are currently under consideration in my Department.

When the former Adoption Board launched the National Adoption Contact Preference Register in 2005, provision was made for persons, who were party to the illegal registration of a child, to register an interest in the Register for possible future contact with another party sometime in the future. Fundamental to the success of the NCPR is that any persons with information in this regard contact the Information and Tracing Unit of the AAI. The Adoption Act 1952 provided a legal basis for adoption in Ireland and for the establishment of the Adoption Board thereby bringing order to what had been the ad hoc arrangements which had previously existed in lieu of formal adoption procedures. That Act was replaced by the Adoption Act 2010. All adoptions in Ireland since 1952 have been carried out in line with this legislation.