Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
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293. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if the necessary resources can be made available to survivors of mother and baby homes to trace their records; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [54253/23]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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Enacted and commenced in 2022, the Birth Information and Tracing Act enshrines in law the right to identity information for all those who are adopted, nursed out, boarded out, subject to an illegal birth registration, or resided in a mother and baby or county home institution as a child. It also allows for access to information by a child of a relevant person where their parent has died, and for access by the next of kin of children who died in an institution.

The Act established a statutory tracing service, and a Contact Preference Register in addition to providing for the release of vital identity information. The tracing service facilitates contact and/or the sharing of information. The Act also introduced a wide range of new bespoke measures to address issues arising for people affected by illegal birth registration. A broad spectrum of counselling and support is available, on request, to persons affected. All of these services are free of charge for those eligible.

To date the Adoption Authority of Ireland and Tusla, the Child and Family Agency have received over 10,000 applications for information and have currently completed over 8,000 cases. The Adoption Authority of Ireland have successfully identified 255 matches on the Contact Preference Register, which facilitates the sharing of information between genetic relations, and, where it is desired, facilitates direct contact.

Additional supports and resources have been provided to both organisations in order to run these services, which have been in operation under the Birth Information and Tracing Act 2022 for over a year.

It should be noted that, specifically in relation to the Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme, there will be no requirement for applicants to supply records documenting the time they spent in a Mother and Baby Institution when they are submitting an application. Applicants will need to include the name of the institution(s), as well as the date they entered and exited the institution(s) (or an estimate, if these dates are not known). The Payment Scheme Office will then establish the time an applicant spent in an institution by conducting a record check on the applicant’s behalf. In a small number of cases records may be requested from an applicant. Where this is necessary, staff of the Payment Scheme Office will contact the applicant to request these records.