Birth certs to be issued to all adoptees

Only compelling reasons, such as a threat to life, will be allowed to stop birth mothers releasing information to adoptees under sweeping new legal reforms.

Children’s Minister James Reilly said special care had been given to the potentially competing needs of a person’s right to privacy and the adoptee’s need to seek details about their blood relatives.

The statutory right to information about their birth parents will be balanced by responsibilities of those seeking to find details about their mothers, he said.