The Irish Adoption Authority and the Tusla child and family agency have confirmed that thousands of adoptees who have applied for their documents under the new Birth Tracking and Information Bill have not received them by yesterday’s legal deadline.
The agencies say that of more than 6,000 applications, only 65 have been finalized, in part because the law only allowed officials a month to find the documents.
Claire McGettrick, co-founder of the Adoption Rights Alliance, said the deadline was “unrealistic” because of the way information is defined and classified under the legislation.
Speaking to RTÉ’s News at One, she said that instead of the Adoption Authority and Tusla officials looking at the file in its entirety and removing information that cannot be released, they have to go through the different categories.
“Thirty days just isn’t enough time to do just that,” she said, according ro RTE.
She said the minister “failed to consult us” along the way, the system was designed without them, and the implementation group created didn’t see a stakeholder named in the group.
In the 90-day extension period, she said she was “very afraid” that this would be achieved.
“This is a situation of the minister’s making, he has promised a landmark system, promised a brand spanking new system and he has created and designed it without us and has created chaos instead,” said Ms McGettrick, reports RTE.
She said the minister had repeatedly promised that nothing would be erased or withheld and that each applicant would receive a complete and complete set of documents, but instead the documents are withheld and there are some redactions.
In her case, the PDF of her registration under the GDPR was 100 pages, but what she got yesterday with this system was 40 pages.
She said the minister had the power to change the legislation and the burial bill while this is underway.
“Ultimately, I can’t help but feel this is going to end up in litigation and I cannot see it withstanding litigation at the courts of justice the European Union. I believe strongly that the state is counting on people to not have the energy to do this but we’re not going anywhere,” she added, reports RTE.
In a statement to RTÉ’s News at One, Children’s Minister Roderic O’Gorman said his department had given the Irish Adoption Authority and Tusla €4 million “to support implementation of the legislation” and that “no redactions can ever take place of a person’s own information”, reports RTE.
Both Tusla and the Irish Adoption Authority confirmed the data on the delays in retrieving the documents, while Tusla apologized for the delays and said that anyone still waiting for the documents will receive them “at the end of January”.
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