Over 4,000 people apply for previously inaccessible birth records in two weeks

Over 4,000 applicants have applied for information on their birth registration in the last two weeks following legislation easing access to adoption records.

The Birth Information and Tracing Act provides a full and clear right of access to information for a person who was adopted, boarded out, had their birth illegally registered or who otherwise has questions in relation to their origins.

Under previous legislation, when someone who had been adopted, boarded out or subject to an illegal birth registration, or someone related to them, sought information about their past, the right of other individuals to privacy trumped their right to information about their identity. That hierarchy of rights has now been reversed.

Under the law, even if a biological parent says they do not want their child to get their birth cert or related information, the adopted person will still get access.

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Since the system went live two weeks, out of the some 4,000 requests for records, Tusla has received 2,460 with the Adoption Authority of Ireland receiving the remainder.

The figures were provided by Tusla Chief Executive Bernard Gloster who was speaking on the This Week programme on RTÉ Radio 1.

Mr Gloster said he expects these numbers to level off in the coming weeks. He warned that people seeking their birth records may face a “complex journey” as many of the records are historic and some are of very poor quality.

“People are beginning a journey that they couldn’t have previously,” Mr Gloster said.

He said in the past Tusla had been “very paternalistic” and that GDPR legislation created a “risk averse environment”. The agency “absolutely” over-redacted documents in the past but maintained that “that did not come from a bad place”.

Previously Tusla was “very much in a siege mentality” but that has now changed. “The public now views us as much more open,” he said.