Birth Information and Tracing Act: Government issues €122,000 tender for review

The review will put a particular emphasis on the views of people who have applied for birth records under the act, and those who have used the Contact Preference Register. Stock picture: Alamy

The Government has issued a tender worth up to €122,000 for a consultancy to evaluate the impact of the 2022 Birth Information and Tracing Act which, for the first time, allows people unqualified access to their birth records. The review, a legal requirement of the act, will take just under two years to complete.

The act, which was signed into law on June 30, 2022, also established the Contact Preference Register, which allows people who had never known their birth parents to be able to make contact with them should the parents be willing.

The act provides a tracing process for people who, as children, had been either adopted, boarded out, subject to an illegal birth registration, or who otherwise had concerns as to their origins.

The Department of Children said the “core aim” of the legislation was to “enshrine in law the importance of a person understanding their origins” by granting them “unrestricted and expedited access to their identity information”.

More than 6,200 people applied for access to their birth records within five months of the legislation being enacted in October 2022, with two thirds of those applications taking place within two weeks of that date.

More than 16,500 applications have been made since the act became law.

However, the legislation has come in for some criticism, given that part-files are generally returned rather than the whole thing. Applicants are also expected to apply for information across multiple categories, leading to claims that the system is overly complicated.

The Department of Children said the review will provide an independent assessment of how the services established under the act are working, and whether or not they are delivering on their objectives.

It will also capture the progress made in the provision of those services, and the experience of people who have engaged with the tracing process.

The tender objectives also include identifying “any outstanding challenges in the delivery of services” and any “lessons that can be used” to inform further development of the tracing service.

To that end, the waiting times and outcomes of all applications are to be considered, and how both have evolved over time as the process became settled.

The review will also focus on how complex situations — such as where one party has indicated they wish for no contact on the contact preference register — are managed in terms of that information being relayed to an applicant.

Detailed accounts will also be compiled of user experiences of the various applicants to the service, with particular emphasis to be placed on those people’s views as to what parts of the act are functioning well and what parts are not.