Minister O’Gorman publishes Birth Information and Tracing Bill

• Landmark legislation will, for the first time, enshrine in law a clear right to full birth, early life, care and medical information for all those with questions on their origins
• Bill revised with significant changes to information session, expansion of information available, and inclusion of next of kin.
• Legislation will, if enacted, respond comprehensively to the decades-long campaign on the part of adopted people to vindicate their fundamental rights to information.
• Bill will begin debate in the Oireachtas this month.

Minister Roderic O’Gorman T.D., has today (12 January 2022) published the Birth Information and Tracing Bill 2022.

This landmark legislation will provide a full and clear right of access to birth certificates, birth and early life 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.

Crucially, the Bill’s requirement for an information session where a parent has expressed a no-contact preference now no longer needs to be a physical meeting; the revised bill makes provision for this to take place by means of a short phone call or video call if desired.

In response to issues raised during Pre-Legislative Scrutiny, the Minister has made key changes, including:

• The requirement for the information session to be held by a social worker has been removed.
• The information session will include explicit recognition of the identity rights of the applicant and their right to access their birth certificate and birth information.
• Next-of-kin will be able to avail of the legislation to access information about a family member in specific circumstances.
• The definition of early life information has been expanded to provide for the release of baptismal certificates and entries on the baptismal register.
• The legislation will use term ‘mother’ instead of ‘birth mother’.

Over and above access to information and records, the legislation also establishes a comprehensive tracing service for persons who want to make contact with family or who wish to seek or share information. It also establishes a new statutory Contact Preference Register. This register offers a means for people to register their preference for contact with family and also a mechanism to lodge communications and contemporary medical information which can be shared with family members.

The legislation addresses the issues facing people who are the subject of an illegal birth registration. The Bill will provide a legal mechanism for provision of an accurate birth registration to affected individuals, while remaining mindful of their current identity.

Speaking on the published Bill, Minister O’Gorman said:

The Minister intends to begin second stage of this priority legislation in the Houses of the Oireachtas within the next two weeks.

ENDS

Key aspects of the Birth Information and Tracing Bill

This ambitious and far-reaching Bill seeks to enshrine in law the importance of a person knowing his or her origins. It provides for the full and unredacted release of birth and early life information to persons who have attained the age of 16 years. In summary, the Bill provides for:

• Release of the birth certificate, 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 (hereafter referred to as a “relevant person”);
• Release of the birth certificate, birth information, early life information, care information and medical information to the child of a relevant person in a situation where the relevant person and the parents named on the birth certificate are deceased;
• Release of information to a next of kin of a relevant person who died as a child in one of the institutions specified in the Bill;
• 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, parent or other genetic relative, as well as lodge personal communications or contemporary medical information; and
• The safeguarding of relevant records.

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

• Providing a robust legal basis for the transfer of information from Tusla to the General Register Office, thereby vindicating the right of relevant individuals to an accurate birth registration; and
• Providing the relevant individual with an entitlement to live under whichever identity they prefer (i.e. their accurate birth identity or the ‘social’ identity by which they have lived their whole lives) and to have their social parents recognised in law through the mechanism of a parallel register. Individuals will be able to opt to continue live by their social identity for the purposes of official identity documents such as passports, contracts, marriage certificates, declarations etc., without fear that this could be undermined by the confirmation of their incorrect registration.

The Birth Information and Tracing legislation will sit within the framework of the Irish Constitution and the GDPR. Importantly, it will strengthen and guarantee existing rights to information and complement the ability for people to access information under the GDPR.

Key Enhancements since Publication of the General Scheme of the Bill

The Minister published the legislation in May 2021 and immediately referred it for pre-legislative scrutiny by the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth. The Committee concluded its pre-legislative scrutiny and published its report on 14 December. In order to advance as quickly as possible, the Minister closely followed the pre-legislative scrutiny process and worked intensively with the Office of the Attorney General to address issues raised through that process and through his separate consultations with stakeholders. Accordingly, the published Bill contains a number of notable improvements and enhancements, including the following:

• Improvements to the information session which is a necessary and minimal mechanism to protect the EU and constitutional rights of parents. This session can now be achieved by means of a short, sensitive and user-friendly phone call with the applicant seeking information and does not require a face to face meeting with a social worker.
• An important change in terminology to take account of feedback from mothers.
• Provision for the clear release of baptismal certificates and entries on the baptismal register. Currently, the parents’ names and sponsors’ names may be redacted when a certificate is released and this will no longer happen once the Bill is enacted.
• Enhancement of the definitions of “care information” and “early life information” so that they are open-ended and inclusive in approach. These have also been supplemented by a new definition of “incorrect birth registration information” and corresponding provisions which ensure that a relevant person can access any information relating to the circumstances under which they may have become the subject of an illegal birth registration.
• A full new Part to the Bill to ensure clear access to information for the child of a relevant person in circumstances where both the relevant person and the parents listed within the birth information are deceased. In these cases, the child will be able to access the full suite of information to which the relevant person would have been entitled, i.e. information relating to the identity of their grandparents, along with other information on their parent’s early life and care, as well as genetic medical information.
• An important new Part 4 has been added which provides for access by next of kin to information related to a relevant person who died as a child in an institution. This may help next of kin to understand what happened to their deceased relative.
• Future-proofing of the legislation by ensuring that the Minister may prescribe additional institutions to be added to the list of institutions set out in schedule 1 of the Bill.
• The inclusion of safeguards for 16 and 17 year olds so that these young people receive their identity information in a highly supportive and child-centered way.
• Expansion of the counselling support which may be offered under the legislation to all relevant persons and their parents.
• Enhancement of provisions on GDPR to take account of issues raised by the Data Protection Commission in relation to the General Scheme. GDPR rights are only restricted in very necessary and limited circumstances and in a proportionate way to enable the release of information under the Bill.

Additional Issues on Illegal Birth Registration to be addressed in the Bill

The Minister is currently liaising with his colleague, the Minister for Justice, on the preparation of proposals to address the issue of succession for individuals affected by illegal birth registration. Once approved, the intention is that these proposals to amend the Succession Act 1965 will be brought forward by way of Committee Stage amendments so that they can be incorporated within the Birth Information and Tracing Bill.