Responding to the new Birth Information and Tracing Bill
Clare McGettrick was born in 1973 and adopted at six weeks old through St Patrick’s Guild Adoption Society, she was reunited with her mother when she was 20.
Although she has known her original identity since then, she has spent her entire adult life in a battle, at first with St Patrick’s Guild and more recently with Tusla, to obtaining her adoption file.
"Like every other adopted person in Ireland, I am discriminated against simply because I am adopted.
I have spent the past 20 years campaigning on this issue with Adoption Rights Alliance, the Clann Project and our predecessor organisations," she said.
"Roderic O’Gorman is the ninth Minister for Children we’ve engaged with; the Birth (Information and Tracing) Bill 2022 is our fourth information bill. I think it’s beyond time for our rights to be recognised in law," she explained.
"Within minutes of reading the Minister's latest Draft Bill, published on 12 January, I knew we had another fight on our hands: under this draft Bill, some adopted people will still have to attend an offensive Information Session before they can get their birth certificates.
The Bill once again wants to take away adopted people’s rights to their personal data, rights only recently affirmed through the General Data Protection Regulation" (GDPR), she added.
Ms. McGettrick spoke with Clem Ryan on Monday morning's Kildare Today:
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