Bill to restore birth certs for illegally adopted
Thousands of people illegally adopted in decades past would have their original birth status confirmed under a bill from Labour’s Joan Burton.
Amid some concerns about the bill’s intention, Ms Burton said it is seeking to allow those adults who were adopted to “regularise” their status and get access to records on who they really are.
In May 2018, 126 cases of illegal registrations were confirmed by Tusla following an analysis of files from St Patrick’s Guild.
Those cases had adoptive parents incorrectly registered as birth parents on birth certificates between 1946 and 1969. Many of those people have been contacted in recent months to inform them of the absence of adequate paperwork in relation to their cases.
Sometimes this informal adoption took place within the wider family and sometimes through the aegis of the Church or other voluntary agencies such as St Patrick’s Guild.
In many cases, rather than record the adoption, infant children were simply transferred directly into the hands of their new parents.
Ms Burton said: “The information provided to register the births was false and the children were as a result given false birth certificates, as the children of the ‘adopting’ couple. This is where the illegal registration occurred.”
Ms Burton’s bill, which she describes as “narrow and precise”, aims to allow those affected have access to their original birth records, should they wish it. The bill is to be tabled in the Dáil next Tuesday.
Children’s Minister Katherine Zappone said she is aware of the bill’s publication and promised to “take a look at it and get back to you on it”.
Barrister Anne O’Meara is one of those affected; she was ‘informally adopted’ by her parents, but there is no certification of that in existence.
“There is no adoption order in my case. I want to get a declaration to say I was adopted. My birth mother ‘adopted’ me, my parents adopted me. I simply want their wishes to be recognised,” she said.
Ms O’Meara said such ambiguity could potentially “cause mayhem” when it comes to inheritance matters.
Ms Burton said what happened in St Patrick’s Guild is “only the tip of the iceberg”.
The bill seeks to define what happened in illegal or ‘informal’ adoptions and will allow people to apply to the Circuit Court to validate their adoption. If satisfied with the evidence presented, the court may make a declaration that the applicant is deemed to have been validly adopted, on a particular date. The Registrar of Births will cancel the false birth certificate, while the Adoption Authority will issue a valid adoption certificate.
Concerns have been raised by some legal experts that the bill, while noble in spirit, could be problematic in execution, particularly in cases where people did not know they were adopted.
Co-founder of Adoption Rights Alliance (ARA) Claire McGettrick expressed concern that the bill essentially regularises illegal adoptions which, in this case, involved registering a child as the natural offspring of the adopting parents, which is a criminal offence. She said the consent of the natural mother would be missing in any adoption order granted in these circumstances.
“An adoption order should never be made in the absence of consent from the natural mother, and in the case of these illegal adoptions from St Patrick’s Guild, it is unclear whether the natural mothers concerned have even been informed that the law was broken in the adoption of their now adult children,” she said.
ARA said it would be premature to introduce legislation in this area in the absence of a thorough,transparent investigation into all illegal adoption practices in Ireland.
Last summer, Tressa Reeves and her son settled case against the State and St Patrick’s Guild after his birth was illegally registered in the name of his adoptive parents.
