Tag Archives: Birth Certs

This afternoon.

Earlier…

This morning.

Government Buildings.

Earlier…

This morning.

The Birth Information and Tracing Bill 2022 has been published

Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth Roderic O’Gorman (top) has written to Mother and Baby Home survivors, former residents, their families and advocates, saying:

The Bill seeks to enshrine in law the importance of a person knowing his or her origins. It aims to remove the long-standing obstacles faced by adopted people and others in gaining access to their own birth and early life information.

For the first time, the Bill will guarantee the full and un-redacted release of all such information to persons who have attained the age of 16 years.

The main features of the Bill provide for:

· The release of full birth certificates, birth information, early life information, care information and medical information for all persons who were adopted, boarded out, the subject of an illegal birth registration or who otherwise have questions in relation to their origins;

· A statutory tracing service for persons wishing to make contact, share or seek information;

· A Contact Preference Register, established in law, through which people can register their preference in relation to contact with a child, or genetic relative, as well as lodge personal communications or updated medical information; and

· The safeguarding of relevant records.

Minister O’Gorman added:

The Bill also amends the Civil Registration Act 2004 to address key issues arising for people affected by illegal birth registration by:

· Providing the relevant individual with an entitlement to live under whichever identity they prefer (i.e. their birth identity or the lifelong identity by which they have lived) and to have their social parents recognised in law through the mechanism of a parallel register; and

· Providing a robust legal basis for the transfer of information to the GRO, thereby vindicating the right of relevant individuals to an accurate birth registration.

It is intended that the Bill will also contain further measures to address issues arising for people affected by illegal birth registration, particularly succession issues.

Now that the Bill is published, the first stage (introduction to the Dáil) is complete and I intend to commence Second Stage in the Dáil next week.

The Birth Information and Tracing Bill 2022 here.

RollingNews

Thanks Breeda

Sinn Féin TD Paul Donnelly and his wife Angela at the Election count centre Citywest, near Dublin, Ireland, February 9, 2020

This morning.

In the Dáil at the Convention Centre, Dublin.

Sinn Féin TD Paul Donnelly spoke during a debate on the Civil Registration (Right of Adoptees to Information) (Amendment) Bill 2021, sponsored by his party to allow adopted persons the right to access their birth records.

He said:

“When I was thinking about writing this speech I went to the person I know is an expert in this, my wife Angela, who was adopted in Dublin in 1968.

“These are her words:

‘I always knew I was adopted. I was told before I really knew what it meant. I couldn’t have asked for better parents. I loved them and my sisters dearly and was loved unconditionally by them.

Despite this, I always felt there was something missing! Something I couldn’t see, smell or touch but something very tangible all the same. I didn’t feel my parent’s ancestors were mine. Their family tree didn’t feel like my history.

I first approached the adoption board when I was 22 following my father’s death. I had felt that requesting my original birth cert would be disloyal to my parents, but following my dad’s passing I realised that we all only have one life to live.

I had a meeting with a social worker who gave me three pieces of non identifying information about my birth mother. There was no information on my file about my birth father.

What followed that meeting was years of intermittent contact with the adoption board. I’d try to put my adoption to the back of my mind and all the unanswered questions associated with it. But it kept creeping back into my consciousness.

When pregnant with our first child I was unable to answer background questions asked by the hospital.

When our first child was born, it was like I had been granted the greatest wish imaginable. I was acutely aware that Seán was my first biological link with the world.

After several years and several requests, the adoption board agreed to give me my original birth cert.

I have no idea how these decisions are made. Why I was granted my birth cert whilst many adoptees are not.

Seeing my birth mother’s name meant so much to me. Knowing I was a member of the O’Donnell family allowed me some knowledge of my ancestors and a sense of belonging.

I have since made contact with my birth mother and three new sisters, it has been a very positive experience for me. I would not have been able to achieve this without my birth cert.

For me it didn’t matter how much I was loved and cherished. I always knew I was adopted and so always felt deep down that someone hadn’t wanted me, always felt something was missing. Not knowing your biological history doesn’t seem like a big issue to those who have it but those who don’t feel its loss.

Being told that you don’t have a right to your own information is very difficult to accept.

Children placed for adoption signed no contracts, relinquished no rights, agreed to nothing.

Information on who you are is a very basic need and the absence of it is not without consequences for those affected by it.’

Oireachtas.ie

From top: Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation members at the commission’s launch in 2015, from left: Professor Mary Daly, Judge Yvonne Murphy, Dr William Duncan.; Attorney General Paul Gallagher

 

This afternoon.

Attorney General Paul Gallagher has confirmed that no referendum will be required on the legal right to access birth certificates as was suggested in the Mother and Baby Home Commission of Investigation’s final report.

A bill will be published shortly on the information and tracing legislation.

Via RTÉ:

During the course of its investigation the Mother and Baby Homes Commission took evidence from people engaged in both sides of the argument.

On the one hand it noted how the main issue raised by lobby groups and individuals born in mother-and-baby homes was information and tracing.

It makes reference too to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child which states the important principle that children are entitled to the information necessary to preserve their personal identity.

On the other hand, it reveals how social workers who had contact with birth mothers gave evidence to the commission about the ramifications of their privacy rights “being eroded” if birth information was revealed without their consent.

…Many of the women told them of their terror at the prospect of the proposed legislation on tracing being implemented.

Attorney General advises no referendum needed on birth cert access (RTÉ)

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