Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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651. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if correspondence will be made available which was forwarded to his Department in 1996 by the Adoption Authority of Ireland after the Department inquired from adoption authorities if they had been made aware of or involved in cases of illegal birth registration. [13208/21]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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I am interpreting the reference in the Deputy's question to the “Adoption Authority” to mean the “Adoption Board” as the Adoption Authority was established in 2010 and the Adoption Board preceded it.

The correspondence referred to is not in files held by my Department, as responsibility for adoption matters previously rested with the Department of Health. That Department is currently engaged with my officials in relation to the transfer of historic files held by the Department of Health relating to a number of issues, including adoption, which are now within the remit of my Department. The correspondence should be included in these files. The COVID-19 Public Health Emergency is imposing additional complexities that make it extremely difficult to access physical files. As the Deputy will be aware, the Sampling Review into illegal birth registrations was published yesterday. I will ensure that this and any other relevant records and information will be taken into account in the context of considering next steps further to the publication of the review.