Mattie McGrath Urges Rethink of Adoption Records Legislation

Minister, I know that your gentleman and your efforts here to try and deal with this very, very sensitive issue, and we all have come across people and know people and families and trauma over the years and decades, so it is long past time that we tried to deal with it, but as Deputy Callaghan made very clear in his speech, and he is a legal person himself, has a better understanding probably of it, and a different history of different court cases, and that than me anyway, and you know, to try and balance the two rights in any issue, you know, there is a referee in a field, and I will not make a little of this situation, but he has to make judgment calls, but to try and balance the right to privacy of the mother, and the right to information, you know, and knowledge of the adopted person, it is a very sensitive, difficult, challenging area. I am disappointed to have heard, you know, and read in the briefing notes, and from your press release as well, Minister, like the Children's Committee gave long consideration to it, and the fact that they had so many amendments, 83 I think in number, and none of them were accepted, and you are shaking your head, that is fine if that is not the situation, but too often that happens, you know, you know, when robust debates and politics, but this is a one for us all to come together, to try and be together, and unified, and indeed united, and to try and deal with this situation, and the number of people that came forward and testified, I want to thank them from the bottom of my heart, of trauma, and, you know, loneliness, and desperation, and, like, many of them feel now that they would not listen to, and we are all getting loads of emails in the last days about this legislation, and some of us that are not on the committee, or not on that committee, you know, wouldn't have been aware of the extent, but nobody seems to be happy with it, and Minister, bad legislation, bad legislation, or rushed, it is not rushed, it is not rushed, but it is kind of rushed, but bad legislation, no legislation is better than bad legislation, so delay is, for another couple of months, it might be better in the end, because they are not happy with it, and they are very, very concerned about it, and we know about Linda up across the river, with the weak gentleman, and we know what that entails, and the challenges, and the delays, and maybe to Europe, and whatever, so, make haste slowly, with the situation here, and I am not diminishing the importance of this situation one bit, but with the forestry bill, brought in here two years ago, which I voted against, because it was just pure useless, and it was better off if we had no legislation than there was, so, it is a different crude topic to introduce when I am talking about people's lives, but I am just given that experience, because I knew it was going to be no use, and it is no use, so, this is too sensitive, too many people have been hurt and damaged, and we need to be able to, we need something to be able to, to, to, to have it, have it right, and give solace to those people that we are meant to give solace to. The joy and the privilege that we have all have been having parents, and knowing our parents, and having our siblings, and everything else through life, it has been a privilege, and a privileged experience, and thanks to our parents, and everybody else, but the trauma then, on the other hand, on the other hand, and I know some of them, I meet them, and one particular gentleman, I meet him regularly, and he is so desperate, and he defined his mother, and he actually did in the finish, but she chose not to be identified, not to meet him. It is so harrowing, so, so traumatic, so, I mean, in your press release, it all sounds great. The landmark legislation will be, for the first time, enshrined in law and a clear right to full birth and early life care and medical information of all those with questions of their origins. That is lovely on paper and the spirit of it, but when people are so unhappy with what is in the bill, I think that really undermines your ambition, and I am not saying it to you personally. You have to deal with the Attorney-General, who has to give advice, and you have to deal with the drafts of this legislation, so, I do not know. The landmark legislation will provide a clear right to access, at the best set of views, but people are saying that, and these are the people in the organisations as well, that are out there championing the causes of these people, and they are not happy with it. I do not know. It is not easy, I know, because it is such a challenge, but there are so many people who are so unhappy with it, and it is going to end up, as I said, in the courts, and then where do we go? I am appealing that you would look at it again. It is amazing. You denied that the number of minimals were rejected, but maybe you will outline in your reply, as to how many were and how many weren't. I am not sure. I am only going to go what I am told. But we all have, as I said, experiences, and we are all here to do our best. And we need to have it right, and we need to work together, to see can we ease the pain and anguish and suffering that has been there in people in this place, and both sides. I am sure the trauma and agony of many of the mothers as well. So it is where the two shall meet, and we want to get it right. So I am appealing to you to be as responsive as you can, and accept some amendments, and try and go back to the drawing board with this legislation, and make sure to get it right. Thank you very much. Thank you very much.