The following excerpt is from a Sept 28 posting at the journal.ie.
Adoption tracing legislation ‘risks being found unconstitutional’, O’Gorman tells Committee. Failure to balance the privacy rights of mothers with the identity rights of children could spark legal challenges to new laws, he said.
FAILURE TO BALANCE the privacy rights of mothers with the identity rights of children risks forthcoming adoption and tracing legislation being found “unconstitutional”, a Dáil committee has heard.
Children’s Minister Roderic O’Gorman has defended measures in the Birth Information and Tracing Bill, that will require “information sessions” to be held prior to the release of birth records, in cases where parents have requested not to be contacted by their adopted child.
In the past, witnesses have expressed concerns to the Oireachtas Children’s Committee that such measures were unnecessary and would stifle the release of records.
O’Gorman said: “I have heard it expressed before the Committee that the information session is not required and that it hampers release.
“This simply does not reflect the position. The legislation aims to provide a clear legal basis for the full release of the birth certificate and birth information in all cases.