Professor calls forco-operation with the North
THE special rapporteur for child protection and author of the State report into illegal adoptions said calls for an all-Ireland inquiry are a good idea in principle but would be ‘very hard to set up’ in practice.
Professor of law at University College Cork Conor O’Mahony, told the Irish Mail on Sunday: ‘We’ve seen the difficulties in setting up an enquiry in just this jurisdiction.
‘But I do think there are possibilities for some level of co-operation with the commission of investigation into mother and baby homes which is being established in Northern Ireland.
‘There would potentially be some synergies there.’
Prof. O’Mahony also said adopted people must be allowed access to DNA testing.
A recurring theme in the consultation sessions (for the report) was the importance of DNA evidence and its potential to assist people affected by illegal birth registration,’ he said.
‘To this end, it is essential that the Birth Information and Tracing Bill, in its final postenactment form, is worded in a way that allows DNA evidence to play a full part in the provisions governing the correction of the register and in the provisions on tracing.
‘It is also important that the Bill adopts an approach that is not unduly prescriptive in respect of what forms of DNA evidence or information from genealogical databases will be accepted.’
The special rapporteur said the Government must legislate for this – and urged them not to hide behind ‘constitutional rights’ as a reason not to help people access their DNA records.
He told the MoS: ‘In Ireland, the Government has repeatedly used constitutional rights as a reason not to do things, rather than the opposite.
‘The fact is there are people who will only know that they may have been the subject of an illegal birth registration due to DNA testing. Those people must be allowed access to DNA testing.
‘Choosing not to affect that legislation is denying the person who wants to establish their identity, their rights. That needs to be taken into account.
‘There are people for whom DNA testing offers the only realistic pathway to the reconstruction of their identity.’
‘I’ve quoted a case in Croatia in the report where a young woman took a case after the person she believed was her father refused to undergo DNA tests.
‘The European Court of Human Rights ruled that her rights had been violated as she was “in a state of prolonged uncertainty as to her personal identity” given that the father refused to undergo the tests.
‘This would suggest that, in the context of illegal birth registrations in Ireland, the State has an obligation to assist individuals to establish their personal identity through mandatory DNA testing at least in the context of parentage.’