The chief way we are supporting the industry is through core funding, the massive investment of €221 million across a full year, which is designed to support capacity. The Deputy has highlighted that capacity is missing in certain areas. The funding is designed in ways to recognise that there are gaps, particularly for younger children under the age of one. Where a service provides a baby room for children under one year of age, there is additional financial support recognising the extra staffing needs of a service…

I can commit that the assisted decision-making (capacity) (amendment) Bill will be published in the next two weeks. We look forward it being passed by the end of this session, with the co-operation of both Houses. I am happy to engage further with Deputy Conway-Walsh on the issue she raised. Tusla is currently undertaking a review of all its family support services, including the place of family resource centres. Any new decisions on family resource centres would have to wait until that process is complete, but I a…

I thank the Senator. At all times in the work that has been ongoing on the Bill, including prior to the initial drafting of the general scheme, the detailed work that took place during pre-legislative scrutiny and the detailed Committee and Report Stages in Dáil Éireann, we have sought to clarify and strengthen the definitions contained in the legislation to ensure that as wide a range of people as possible will be able to use the very important provisions of this legislation to get full and unredacted access to al…

I thank the Senator. They are covered. The people who can use this legislation are covered in the definition of "relevant person", which means a person who is one or more of the following: an adopted person; and a person who is or has reasonable grounds for suspecting that he or she is the subject of an incorrect birth registration. There is a third category that is not relevant to this discussion. I am referring to someone in the second category who has reasonable grounds for suspecting he or she is the subject of…

The availability of information and information of different types on various issues is central to what this Bill is about. In discussing the first group of amendments, we referred to who may use this legislation. We are now talking about what they may look for and the type of information they may seek. As we know, there are rights to broad categories of information provided for in this legislation. These include rights to the birth certificate, birth information, care information, early life information, incorrect…

We could not get the names of other persons.

I know the Senator is not pressing the amendment, but on the point on the vaccine trials, we must recall that on the substantive provisions to do with the release of information, it is about the release of information and a copy of the records on all the different headings. For example, section 15 refers to "Relevant body or Authority to provide medical information". I know it is not care information, but they are mirrored. Section 15(2)(a) states: "shall, to the extent that it is practicable to do so, provide the …

I thank the Senator. My response will be somewhat similar to my response to the point she made about vaccines. Much of what she is seeking to address in the amendment is covered under the definition of “early life information”. That is where the matter is most appropriately addressed. The various pieces of information provided for under early life information, include, in paragraphs (g) to (k), inclusive, information on any medical treatments, procedures or vaccinations administered to him or her; information on th…

This is similar to the previous discussion. Section 11 relates to the "Relevant body to provide early life, care information or incorrect birth registration information on application by relevant person aged 18 years or over". Subsection (2) states that, subject to subsection (3), a relevant body on application to it made under this section "shall, to the extent that it is practicable to do so, provide the relevant person with a copy of the records it holds". We are not just talking about the information. If the da…

I will speak to amendments Nos. 9 to 13, inclusive. Amendment No. 9 seeks to include the words "medical information" in the definition of "early life information". What the Senator is proposing is not necessary. The information set out in this category gives clear direction to relevant bodies that health and medical information on the applicant can be released. The tripling or quadrupling down that the Senator is proposing is not necessary. It is very clear with regard to the release of medical information. Amendme…

I certainly think it helps and gives clarity in that circumstance of illegal birth registration. In terms of the release of the name, this is something on which I and the team in my Department have engaged extensively with the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel. It is something that has been raised at other stages of the debate on this legislation. We are talking about a balancing test that needs to be applied to the release of other people's names to an individual. The legislation provides that parents' names wil…

I thank all the Senators for their contributions on these amendments. Before I speak to amendments Nos. 56 to 61, inclusive, I want to say that Senator Boyhan is right to remind us all that, once this legislation is passed and operational and once adopted people are using its provisions, there are people who will be deeply disappointed because the information simply is not there. The Senator is right we have to be wary of raising expectations and the Senator knows far better than I do because of the many people he …

A detailed definition of "genetic relative" is set out in section 2. For other Senators, because Senator Higgins has asked the question, there is a detailed definition. "Genetic relative" means a full-blood or half-blood relative, which is a wide definition. I am happy to consider the question the Senator has asked.

The Senator might look at section 2, which states: For the purposes of this Act, a person (“first mentioned person”) is the subject of an incorrect birth registration where— (a) as a result of the giving of information that was false or misleading ... That element of "false or misleading" that the Senator mentioned earlier on is directly included in section 2 and again in section 54.

I thank all of the Senators for their engagement on this point. I will seek to address all that was said. First, I wish to respond to Senator Warfield's comment that some people who are illegally adopted have no rights under this Bill. As Senator Seery Kearney said, that is just wrong. The very centre of Parts 8 and 9 is about dealing with the situation of those who were the subject of illegal birth registrations. I need to put that on the record of the House. I want to talk about the terminology we are using. The …

I thank Senator Boyhan for his comments. I, too, welcome this opportunity, which is longer perhaps in this House than the Committee Stage was in the other House. It is useful to tease through the issues. Specifically on Senator Higgins's point on using the word "or", I confirm that I specifically raised the issue of looking at "or" rather than having a pure substitution. Again, having engaged with the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel, it has not been possible to achieve what the Senator spoke about, that is, usi…

I absolutely accept the sincerity in which all these amendments are offered. It is obviously any Senator's right to press an amendment. I think Senator Higgins and I are trying to achieve the same thing but whereas she is seeking to create two routes through the use of both "incorrect" and "illegal", I am seeking to broaden what we classify as incorrect by bringing in the terms "false" and "misleading". I think they speak to what the Senator is seeking to achieve. She disagrees and I understand that.

I believe the inclusion of those words achieves the recognition of both being false and the fact that it is misleading where there is a deliberate effort to mislead. It speaks to the points the Senator raised. I accept that she does not agree.

This amendment seeks to alter the definition of "medical information" to reference the word "record". This amendment is a response to an oversight in the Bill as originally published, which provided for the medical information of a relevant person to be released but not for the release of the record itself directly to the person. During the Dáil debates I brought an amendment to the Bill on Report Stage to amend section 15, which now ensures it is the record itself that can be released to the relevant person. This …

We discussed a similar issue earlier. Amendment No. 55 seeks to amend the definition of "early life information" from what it currently is, "information on any medical treatments, procedures or vaccinations administered to him or her", to read "medical information, including information on any medical treatments, procedures or vaccinations administered to him or her". I cannot support this amendment. Examples that are provided for under this subsection of the definition of "early life information" are clearly medic…