Legislation to be published today giving adoptees access to birth certs

Children's minister Roderic O'Gorman: 'I am committed to bringing [the Birth Information and Tracing Bill] through the Houses of the Oireachtas as quickly as possible.' Picture: Gareth Chaney/Collins

Children's Minister Roderic O'Gorman will today publish legislation to give adopted people access to birth certs and other personal information.

The bill, which campaigners have been calling on for many years, will include "significant" changes to what was initially drafted.

It comes exactly one year on from the publication of the final report of the Commission of Investigation into mother and baby homes.

It is understood Mr O'Gorman has made a number of significant alterations to the draft Birth Information and Tracing Bill following the publication of the general scheme of the bill last year, which will allow for more information to be released including baptism certs, as well as changes to the information session which had been raised as a significant issue.

Children's committee called for 80 changes to bill

Campaigners and survivors have been calling for full and unfettered access to their personal records and had voiced reservations around the bill in its draft format.

Before Christmas, an Oireachtas committee report recommended that more than 80 changes be made to the proposed law.

Members of the Children's Committee called on Mr O'Gorman to scrap the part of the bill that would require some adoptees to attend an information session before being granted their personal documents.

It is understood that under the changes made by the minister, anyone applying for their birth certificate will no longer be required to attend an in-person information session. Where a birth parent has expressed a no-contact preference, that information can now be conveyed over the phone.

The session will also now have explicit recognition of the identity rights of the applicant and their right to access their birth certificate and birth information.

It is also understood that the term ‘birth mother’ will be replaced by ‘mother’. This is in light of representations from women whose children were adopted and were unhappy with the term ‘birth mother’.

United Nations bodies raised serious concerns

Eight UN bodies had also raised serious concerns around the draft legislation as it "failed to ensure and effectively vindicate rights of access to records and personal data".

They pointed out that it did not provide a right for mothers to receive their full records, and there was no provision in the draft legislation to ensure the right of relatives of those who died in institutional custody to obtain full records about their disappeared relatives.

Writing to survivors last night, Mr O'Gorman said the legislation has been "an absolute priority" for him in the 12 months since the mother and baby home report was published.

"Over the past year, I have spoked to hundreds of persons affected by adoption, illegal birth registration, the system of boarding out or the legacy of mother and baby and country home institutions," he wrote. 

I know how important the Birth Information and Tracing Bill is for many people and that is why I am committed to bringing it through the Houses of the Oireachtas as quickly as possible to support timely enactment and implementation in 2022.

In an interview before Christmas, Taoiseach Micheál Martin described the new legislation as "groundbreaking".