Statement by Minister O’Gorman on publication of the Report by the Special Rapporteur on Child Protection on a Proposed State Response to Illegal Birth Registrations in Ireland

Minister Roderic O’Gorman, has today (14 March 2022) published an independent report by Professor Conor O’Mahony, Special Rapporteur on Child Protection on Proposals for a State Response to Illegal Birth Registrations in Ireland.

The Minister asked the Special Rapporteur in March 2021 to consider the significant complexities and challenges which arise in relation to the issue of illegal birth registrations, and to provide a report proposing an appropriate course of action. The report sets out 17 numbered recommendations which span the themes of the right to identity; access to counselling and other supports; access to records; the creation of a specialist tracing team to undertake a further review of suspicious files; DNA and legal costs; and the establishment of a Truth Commission.

In reflecting on the report, the Minister is pleased that the Birth Information and Tracing Bill 2022 can and will robustly fulfil the vast majority of the recommendations. In particular, it will:

• provide clear and guaranteed access to identity information, including birth, early life, care and medical information, as well as full information on the circumstances of their illegal birth registration (recommendations 6 and 7)
• provide a lawful basis for the sharing of information to enable correction of the birth register, thereby vindicating a person’s entitlement to an accurate birth registration (recommendations 1, 2, 3 and 5)
• provide for the “social identity” by which an affected person has lived, to be legally recognised by means of a new register, where that is their wish. The approach will enable correction to an affected person’s birth record and ensure official recognition of their social identity, with a choice in terms of a person being able to generate a certificate from the register of their choosing, i.e. the birth register or the new register. It will also provide a means to legally recognise the affected person’s relationship with the parents who raised them, where that is their wish. (recommendations 1, 2, 3 and 5)
• provide a statutory basis for the counselling supports which are already made available to persons affected by illegal birth registration (recommendations 4 and 13)
• provide a statutory tracing service, through which genealogical expertise will be made available to assist individuals, and through which communication and contact between family members and people affected by illegal birth registration will be facilitated. (recommendations 1, 2, 3 and 5)
• provide a mechanism for adoption and other relevant records to be safeguarded and transferred to the Adoption Authority of Ireland (AAI). This represents an important foundation for delivery of related Government commitments to a centralised archive and a National Memorial and Records Centre as set out in Actions 6 and 7 in the Action Plan for Survivors and Former Residents of Mother and Baby and County Home Institutions. (recommendation 7).
• provide for a specialised tracing service that will undertake a review and full trace of the files flagged by Tusla as suspicious during the Independent Review and provide expedited reviews for persons who hold reasonable suspicions that they may have been the subject of an illegal birth registration. (recommendations 8 – 12)
• ensure that the statutory information campaigns relating to the Birth Information and Tracing Bill will provide clarity on the application of DNA evidence. The use of DNA evidence that aligns with legal standards is already a feature which supports the correction of birth records in the register of births. (recommendation 14)

In addition, the Minister continues to develop the Birth Information and Tracing Bill as a means of addressing issues which arise for people affected by illegal birth registration. Last week, he introduced new provisions into the Bill to provide assurance to affected persons that acts undertaken and contracts entered into in good faith will not be undermined by reason of a person being the subject of an illegal birth registration. He also introduced amendments to better recognise the false and fundamentally wrong nature of what occurred when these people had their birth illegally registered. Finally, he confirmed formally that he will be introducing more new measures into the Bill to address the Special Rapporteur’s recommendations for a specialist tracing service and, in conjunction with the Minister for Justice, to address succession issues arising for affected persons.

In addition to all of the above measures, the Minister is also happy to move forward on recommendation 16 regarding a payment towards legal costs associated with, for example, a declaration of parentage. The Minister will establish a payment scheme to make once-off payments of €3,000 to the individuals affected by confirmed illegal birth registration in the files of St. Patrick’s Guild. These payments will represent a contribution towards costs which may arise in relation to DNA testing or legal fees which may be incurred in respect of seeking information on the implications of their birth registration in the context of their particular individual circumstances.

The full list of recommendations and the Government’s response to addressing each is set out at the end of this statement.

The Minister met with people affected by illegal birth registrations prior to the publication of the report. In doing so, he considered it crucial that those affected should be the first to learn of the report’s findings and recommendations, as well as the actions he is taking in response to the report.

The Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Dr Roderic O’Gorman TD said:

For those affected by the issue of illegal birth registrations, the Department funds a therapeutic service, provided by Barnardos, on an individual and group basis. Please contact Catherine.joyce@barnardos.ie for more information.

ENDS//

Additional Background Information:

• What is an illegal birth registration?

Illegal birth registration occurs where the persons named on a child’s birth certificate are not in fact the child’s birth parents. In these cases, the “adoptive” parents’ names appear on the birth certificate, rather than the birth parents. In some cases, the person in question may have two birth certificates. In other cases, there may only be one, the incorrect registration.

While these cases are often referred to as “illegal adoptions” in the media, it is important to note that there was no adoption order in the vast majority of these cases.

• How many illegal birth registrations have there been?

When Tusla, the Child and Family Agency took possession of the files of St. Patrick’s Guild Adoption Society, they reviewed their contents.

The St. Patrick’s Guild files were unique in that they contained the marker “adopted from birth” which raised suspicions upon receipt of the files by Tusla. While it had long been suspected that illegal birth registrations happened in Ireland, this was the first time that there was evidence of a high enough standard to allow confirmation in individual cases.

Social workers have to date confirmed 151 cases of illegal birth registrations in the files of St. Patrick’s Guild.

• What is this report, and how is it different to the previous report on illegal birth registrations?

In March 2021, the Minister published an Independent Review into Illegal Birth Registration. This report examined a sample of files from adoption agencies, nursing homes and boarded out records for evidence of illegal birth registrations.

It found that there was no comparable marker in the files of other agencies to indicate the practice of illegal birth registration with sufficient documentary evidence on the files to enable a threshold to be reached to allow the confirmation of an illegal birth registration in an individual case. The report also concluded that a wider review of adoption files is unlikely to yield evidence that would confirm illegal birth registrations to the necessary level of certainty.

When publishing the Independent Review, the Minister asked the Special Rapporteur on Child Protection to consider the very significant complexities and challenges, including the deep ethical issues, which arise in relation to the issue of illegal birth registrations, and to propose an appropriate course of action in terms of any further potential review, analysis or investigation. Today, the Minister published the Special Rapporteur on Child Protection’s report.