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TAOISEACH MICHEÁL MARTIN has said he is “more than willing” to offer a State apology in the Dáil to people who had their births registered illegally.
Children’s Minister Roderic O’Gorman yesterday issued an apology on behalf of the Government to people who have been impacted by illegal birth registrations.
O’Gorman made his second stage speech on the Information and Tracing Bill in the Seanad, which will give added rights to people with falsified birth certificates.
Social Democrats TD Cian O’Callaghan asked the Taoiseach if he would issue a formal apology in the Dáil to people who had their births registered illegally.
“As he is aware, there is considerable disappointment that the apology that was issued was issued by the Minister in the Seanad and with very little notice. Will the Taoiseach do the right thing and, with proper notice, give this apology on behalf of the State in the Dáil?” he asked.
“I am more than willing to do this and will engage now with the Minister, and also with other groups, in terms of timing and how that would be done best,” he said.
“What happened here in terms of the illegal registration of births, depriving people of their basic right to identity and also consequential access to all information pertaining to their births, was shocking.
“The Birth Information and Tracing Bill, in my view, will address that. The issue of proper access to birth rights has gone on for decades and I welcome that this legislation will give an unprecedented level of comprehensive access that was long overdue,” said the Taoiseach.
Martin said the children’s minister has led the very important work in respect of illegal birth registrations. He said the Government believed it was appropriate that an apology would be made on behalf of the Government by the minister.
“That said, I have heard what survivor groups and victim groups have said,” the Taoiseach acknowledged.
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Just another apology, means absolutely nothing mr Taoiseach .
@Paul Gorry: great minds
@Paul Gorry: exactly. And all of us so-called ‘donor conceived’ people, created for money by the fertility industry, with tax-payer funded gps telling parents to say nothing and pretend our raising parents were the real parents, fake medical histories, fake birth certs …… this industry continues. Making babies for money. Babies, people, who have to climb through bureaucratic hoops to get access to basic information about their own history, if they’re lucky to be born recently enough to get that information at all. We are severed from family deliberately, as a commodity- and the prevailing attitude is that we should shut up and ‘be grateful to be alive’. Will be interesting to see what the surrogacy legislation looks like- hopefully they think about the people who have to live with the knowledge that their mother was a living incubator due to economic inequality. They won’t even speak the same language. Unreal.
Mehaaaalll is some man for learning lessons
Yeah because these apologies really mean nothing
@David Nolan: Yet many victims still want them, so perhaps they do.
Lessons learned I suppose?
@Aaron Gregory: are you kidding? The trade in children and the rights to parentage is alive and well, unfortunately. Except now it’s the billion dollar ‘fertility’ industry that separates people from their families- for a price of course. Babies are still a commodity.
“Easier to ask forgiveness than permission.”
Yesterdays apology by Children’s Minister Roderic O’Gorman only covered 151 babies. Barnardo’s children’s charity found up to 15,000 illegal adoptions throughout Ireland where adoptive parents were registered as birth parents. Tusla only reviewed 1,500 documents from 25 adoption agencies. Tusla estimated that 5,500-20,000 files could involve illegal adoptions out of about 100,000 records stored in state records.
Clarity is needed to the exact numbers of children involved. This rush to whitewash government knowledge is alarming. What about getting to the truth? Another apology will not provide dignity those who had their children taken or those victims you had their identity stolen for profit.
@leartius: add to that all those created using anonymous ‘donors’ who were never told the truth about their parents, who will never meet their siblings, who have given false medical histories their whole lives. It’s horrible. So many children whose lives were a lie.
Maybe meehole should apologise for going into power with f.g.
And selling us down the swannee
An apology from a compulsive spoofer has no credibility.
What do people want instead of an apology?
@Susan Keane: a maternity hospital with no connection to the Catholic Church.
AND IN ANOTHER 100 YEARS TIME WE’LL HAVE ANOTHER POLITICIAN APOLOGIZING FOR THE THOUSANDS OF INNOCENT BABIES MURDERED BY ABORTION IN IRELAND.
… And yet he still hasn’t done it. Empty words, empty promises
And yet he still hasn’t done it! Empty words, empty promises.
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