One must feel for those people whose births were incorrectly registered or who were adopted illegally and have learned for the first time that their parents are not their birth parents on foot of the information which emerged yesterday about St. Patrick's Guild. The youngest person affected is 49 years old while the oldest is 72. The issues of incorrect registrations of children and of illegal adoptions are not news or something we learned about only yesterday. Indeed, over the past six to seven years, various legislative proposals have been considered to address this specific issue, and the issues of tracing rights and access to information have come before quite a number of Oireachtas health committees. I welcome the news that a specific review of this matter is to be carried out, which is important. I ask in a more urgent sense, however, what we are doing now for future generations of children whose rights are not being affirmed.

It has been accepted that we need to create a statutory basis to facilitate children who have been adopted to trace information concerning their true identities. The Adoption (Information and Tracing) Bill was published in 2016 and the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy Zappone, introduced it in Seanad Éireann in May 2017. She spoke at length to the Seanad about the issues involved and paid tribute to Senator Bacik and former Senators Jillian van Turnhout and Averil Power as forerunners who advocated the introduction of the legislation. The legislation deals specifically with the issue identified yesterday and would, if enacted, provide adopted persons' birth parents and relatives with a statutory right to an information and tracing service. The Minister told the Seanad:

[T]he State now recognises that there were also children who were incorrectly registered as the children of people other than their birth parents. This could serve to remove any formal record linking a birth parent with his or her birth child. Persons who have discovered that they were incorrectly registered in this way have faced huge and sometimes insurmountable difficulties in obtaining accurate identity information.

The Minister said the provisions of the Bill dealt with this specific issue.

While there have been several drafts and iterations of the legislation, it has essentially stalled at this stage. There has been a commitment to enact legislation for six years, but for some reason a Bill which crucially provides a statutory basis on which people can access this information and their identities, health records and so on, has not emerged. Where is the legislation? Will the Taoiseach explain the lack of urgency in bringing it forward, the drift in progressing it and the reason for the delay?

We all agree that this is a very difficult issue which needs to be handled with the utmost sensitivity. We are opening another dark chapter of our history. These are events which took place 50 and 70 years ago when Ireland was a very different place. It seems like a foreign country to the one it is today. Nevertheless, we must acknowledge these matters and deal with them as best we can. We know that incorrect or illegal registrations are not new. The Deputy is correct in that regard. We know that it was a historical practice and one which was probably commonplace. Journalists have written about it in recent years and adoption rights campaigners have raised it publicly. We all know the tragic story of the wonderful Philomena Lee and her son, Michael Hess, whom she never got to meet. What is new is that we have clear documentary evidence because of the fact that St. Patrick's Guild transferred its records to Tusla, which has been going through them over the past year or so. Evidence has been hard to find because what was done in the past was concealed. It is often the case that there are no records or that records were falsified.

The citizens affected are now in their 50s, 60s and 70s and their birth parents and the parents who raised them will be in their 70s, 80s and 90s. In many cases, we are talking about very elderly people and some who may have passed away. Some may know their birth stories but many others will not and will be finding out in the next couple of weeks and months. They will be finding out at the age of 49, 50 and 60 that the people they thought for decades were their birth parents were, in fact, not. Parents who brought up children for 50, 60 and 70 years may now have to have that very difficult conversation with the children they brought up that they are not in fact their birth parents or even, indeed, their legal parents. There will be other family members involved. Sisters and brothers who believed they were blood relatives will find out that this was not the case. This is potentially a very traumatic situation for many people and I am very sorry for it. I hope we can deal with this, not just as a Government but as politicians, in a sensitive way because that is what is required.

Some will say that the past should be left in the past and that we will do more harm than good by disclosing this information. Some will say this is a dark chapter about which we should not have to read. We disagree. This information is now available and the only thing to do is disclose it to the people affected. Ultimately, it is their choice and their lives. They have a right to know about their identities and birth stories. I am reminded of the words of the American author Alex Haley who wrote:

In all of us there is a hunger, marrow-deep, to know our heritage - to know who we are and where we have come from. Without this enriching knowledge, there is a hollow yearning [...] and the most disquieting loneliness.

I am taken aback that the Taoiseach did not answer my very specific question about why there has been a delay in legislating for this matter. I did not want prepared soundbites or a prepared script. I asked for a specific answer. In 2010, the Adoption Authority of Ireland conducted an audit on this issue. The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child has commented negatively on our failure to legislate to facilitate access to information and tracing and to vindicate the right of children to know their identities.

I agree 100% with uncovering the past. I have no difficulty with that whatsoever. However, we have failed over the past number of years, by the Government's failure to bring forward the legislation and bring it through, to look after the rights of children born today. Children born today do not have an automatic right to a birth certificate, to their identity and to tracing health information that could be vital to their well-being. We need to deal urgently with the present and future generations as well as dealing with the past.

I just wanted to ask a basic question. Having gone through seven or eight drafts, the Bill was published in 2016. What issue is delaying it? Why the lack of urgency in bringing this Bill through?

My apologies for not answering that earlier. The primary purpose of the Adoption (Information and Tracing) Bill 2016 is to provide an adopted person with a statutory right to apply for his or her birth certificate and information about his or her adoption order. A further aim of the Bill is to give adopted persons, birth parents and relatives a statutory right to an information and tracing service. People who have been subject to an incorrect registration will acquire the right to the same information and tracing service.

The Bill was published in 2016, has passed Second Stage in Seanad Éireann and is awaiting Committee Stage. The Bill has not stalled. The Minister is working on a number of amendments, which are now on Committee Stage. The Minister has met Opposition and Independent Members in the Seanad on many occasions to work through some of the complex issues that arise.

The Bill relates to significant personal rights and to identity and to privacy, and these need to be carefully balanced. The work is ongoing to do this. Enactment and commencement of the Adoption (Information and Tracing) Bill 2016 remains a priority of the Minister, Deputy Zappone, and the Government.