Sir, - Many people do not share either Mr Finlay's or Ms Eithne Fitzgerald's view that the proposed Freedom of Information Bill will dispel the culture of secrecy which exists in Government departments. On the contrary, the old order appears to have succeeded in frustrating any attempt to make accessible to the public information that is and has been available to citizens of nearly all other EU member states for decades.
I draw your attention to the fact that Ireland is the only EU member state to discriminate still against adult adopted people in its continued refusal to release ad option records to those most concerned. Indeed Scotland has made this information available since the 1930s.
The Constitutional Review Group reported their recommendation, in May 1996, that the child (now adult) "should be entitled to this information, not only for genetic and health reasons, but also for psychological reasons and that this right should be constitutionally protected. It is also interesting to note that the current Attorney General, Mr Dermot Gleeson, served as a member of this review group.
Ms Fitzgerald gave false hope to thousands in her press release on December 16th 1996. I quote directly from her press the release: "The Bill confers on everyone a legal right to information held by public bodies, and imposes a legal duty on public bodies to provide this information". She fails to make it public knowledge that it is her intention to exclude adoption information from the bill.
Could the Minister, Ms Fitzgerald, find it in herself to apologise to all the adult adopted people who thought for a few short hours that they were finally to be treated as equal citizens and not as second class citizens, which has always been the case?
It should be of interest to Mr Finlay, and also assist Ms Fitzgerald in her quest to maximise the amount of information to be made available, that the most recently enacted Freedom of Information legislation in the world is that of the Canadian Province of British Colombia. Their law has the provision that once an adult adopted person includes a birth certificate in applying for adoption information to the Ministry of Child and Family, the Ministry is legally bound under the legislation to provide all documents relating to the applicant's adoption which will also include any named birth parents.
Also the vast majority of Irish born children sent abroad for adoption went to the United States and those who underwent the visa/naturalisation process there have full access to all their adoption related documents under the United States Federal Freedom of Information legislation.
Perhaps Ms. Fitzgerald before finalising her legislation will include rather than exclude. Surely she believes that all children born, in Ireland are equally entitled to this information, if not for themselves but for their offspring, whose health is endangered by their parent's inability through no fault of their own to provide an accurate genetic and medical history for their children. - Yours, etc.,
Information Officer,
The Adopted and Fostered Persons Association of Ireland,
52 Moatview Drive,
Prior's Wood
Dublin 17