Campaigners demand birth information for everybody involved in adoptions 

The Clann project is seeking legislation that provides birth information for everybody involved in adoptions.

Campaigners want proposed legislation on the right to birth information to be extended beyond the current remit of 44 mother and baby homes and county homes.

The Clann project, which involves the Adoption Rights Alliance and Justice for Magdalene Research, says the proposed Birth Information and Tracing Bill only applies to a “fraction” of institutions and organisations involved in forced family separations in the past.

At present the Bill only includes 14 mother and baby homes, which were subject to an investigation by the Mother and Baby Home Commission, and 30 county homes.

In a submission to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children, which is carrying out pre-legislative scrutiny of the Bill, the Clann Project says the legislation must be extended to “all known” institutions, agencies, and individuals involved in adoptions and forced separations.

Through its work, the Clann Project has identified at least 182 institutions, agencies, and individuals.

The Bill, the submission says, must also provide “unconditional access” to birth certificates and birth information, a legal right to access care or adoption records, and open up all “administrative records”, such as financial or inspection records, relating to mother and baby homes, adoption agencies, and any state or other organisation involved.

It also says the legislation must make provisions to safeguard and centralise all relevant records in the National Memorial and Records Centre and for the development of an enhanced tracing service, run by independent genealogists.

“As currently written, this Bill runs the risk of perpetuating the culture of shame and secrecy that pervades the Irish adoption system,” the Clann Project submission states.

The Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) has also called for the Bill to be extended beyond the 44 institutions currently listed, in a submission on the proposed legislation.

Identity is a fundamental human right, ICCL Executive Director Liam Herrick said.

“Many people across Ireland and abroad were victims of forced and illegal adoptions from Mother and Baby Homes and other institutions in the 20th century," he said.

"Many do not have access to their birth certs. Government must ensure access to birth certs for all adopted people.” 

The human rights organisation said the Bill should also allow people to receive information on the circumstances of death and burial site of their relative and also urged the government to ratify the UN Convention on Enforced Disappearances.

Other ICCL recommendations include removing restrictions on access to personal data; removing the minimum age for access to information; ensuring that a lack of compliance with a request for information under the Bill has an enforcement mechanism; and providing counselling to all birth parents and adopted people.