Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions
Dail Éireann — 2021-03-03
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Mary Lou McDonald (SF), Dublin Central

These matters are deeply traumatising and upsetting but they are not surprising. That is the point. There has been knowledge of these deliberate and criminal practices for a considerable length of time. We now need to put things to rights. There is the scandal of illegal adoption itself. There is also the scandal of the trafficking of children to America and elsewhere. There is also the ongoing scandal, to rub salt into the wound, of the State and its agencies deliberately blocking and frustrating adopted people in their attempts to access their information. Perhaps that is the biggest scandal of all and it persists to this day. We need information and tracing legislation and it must put the rights of the adopted person first, front and centre.
In the meantime, Sinn Féin has legislation in respect of access to birth certificates that we will bring next week. I appeal to the Taoiseach to follow in the steps of the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, who has been constructive on this matter and to support this legislation as an immediate and necessary first step to put things right.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2021-03-03/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:49:06+00:00
Sitting date: 2021-03-03