Govt apology criticised by some adoption campaigners
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Loading... - Beatrix Huber
- 11 May 2022
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A Government apology to people who had their births registered illegally has been criticised by some adoption campaigners and politicians.
The apology was delivered in the Seanad yesterday by Minister for Children Roderic O'Gorman, with many of those affected only having been notified about it on Monday.
There have been calls for the apology to be repeated in the Dáil by Taoiseach Michéal Martin.
Special Rapporteur for Child Protection Professor Conor O'Mahony who proposed the apology initially, has said the idea in principle in delivering the apology was the right one as it is something that the people affected did want.
"My report, which I had prepared for the Government on the issue of illegal birth registration, had recommended that if an apology was something which people affected by the issue wanted to see happen, then it should happen.
"And so, I think the idea of delivering that apology was the right one because I think certainly it was something that the people affected by illegal birth registrations wanted to see."
Speaking on RTE's Morning Ireland, Dr O'Mahony said the 24-hour notice was "not ideal" and "unfortunate" because it did not give people a chance to prepare themselves or to perhaps go to hear the apology in person.
He said there has been a call from people affected by the issue for the Taoiseach to repeat the apology in the Dáil.
"Previous apologies on these sorts of historic wrongdoings have come from the Taoiseach in the Dáil," he said.
"...some people felt that this was a form of lesser apology, given that it came from a minister in the Seanad and that it didn't have quite the same status and that left them feeling that they didn't get quite the same acknowledgement from the State that occurred in previous cases.
"Ultimately, the whole purpose of an apology like this is that it is to try to provide some comfort to people who experience very significant wrongdoing over a very long period of time in a context where the State failed to take steps that could have mitigated or prevented that wrongdoing.
"And so if the entire purpose of the apology is to seek to provide comfort to those people, then if they would wish to see the Taoiseach repeat it, then I think that should happen."
Prof O'Mahony said that the bill that was discussed in the Dáil last night will allow people to piece together their identity using documentary evidence from the records.
Speaking on the same programme, Anne O'Connor from the support group 'In It Together' said the statement at the beginning of the apology annoyed her, because this issue had been known about since the 1950s and did not come to light in 2018 as the minister said.
Ms O'Connor said she only received notice of the apology via an email on Monday and she hopes to get more notice if a State apology is given.
She said she would like the "appalling manner in which many of us were told" to be acknowledged in such an apology. Read More...
