Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Roderic O’Gorman, today offered a formal apology on behalf of the Government for the deep hurt and anguish experienced by people whose births were illegally registered.
The Minister placed the apology on the record of the Houses of the Oireachtas at the commencement of the Birth Information and Tracing Bill’s passage through Seanad Éireann on Tuesday, 10 May 2022. The Minister offered the apology directly as Minister primarily responsible for the whole of Government response to the issue of illegal birth registrations.
In March, the Government committed to the Minister placing an apology on record of the Houses as part of advancing the Birth Information and Tracing Bill 2022. The Government is also introducing significant and wide-ranging measures to address issues arising for people affected by illegal birth registration.
Many of these measures are being delivered through the Birth Information and Tracing Bill which will:
- Provide people who were illegally registered with clear and guaranteed access to information relating to their identity and the circumstances of their illegal birth registration.
- Provide for the identity by which an affected person has lived, to be legally recognised by means of a new register, where that is their wish.
- Provide assurance to affected persons that acts undertaken and contracts entered into in good faith will not be undermined because of a person being the subject of an illegal birth registration.
- Amend the Succession Act to address inheritance issues arising for affected persons.
- Provides a statutory basis for the counselling supports which are already made available to persons affected by illegal birth registration.
- Provide for 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.
- Provide a mechanism for adoption and other relevant records to be safeguarded and transferred to the Adoption Authority of Ireland (AAI).
- Provide for a specialised tracing service that will undertake a review and full trace of files flagged by Tusla as suspicious during the Independent Review and will provide expedited reviews for persons who hold reasonable suspicions that they may have been the subject of an illegal birth registration.
In addition to all of the above measures, the Minister is finalising 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.
As the Minister stated on the record of the House this evening:
“Since becoming Minister, I have engaged extensively with people whose births were illegally registered and I believe that these measures – while overdue – will make significant progress towards addressing the practical challenges and difficulties arising for affected individuals. However, nothing in these measures can undo the past and fully right the wrongs that these people have experienced. I deeply regret the pain and distress that this has caused and, again, I offer my sincere apology as a Minister of the Government, and on behalf of Government, for this.”
