Proposals to give more than 40,000 adopted people access to their original birth certificates at the age of 18 are to be put to the Cabinet tomorrow.
Adopted people would get their original birth certificates regardless of whether the birth parents had believed their identities would remain secret.
But access to additional information in adoption files would be limited if birth parents object and if the adoption took place before the introduction of the new legislation. Future adoptees will have a right to the additional information.
The Adopted People's Association last night said it fundamentally disagreed with limiting access to adoption information to any adoptees.
However, it said the proposals represented an advance and urged the Government to fasttrack the legislation. Otherwise, an APA spokesman, Mr Kevin Cooney, said, it would not have completed its passage before the next general election.
Currently, the Adoption Board must seek the views of birth mothers before deciding whether to give adoptees access to their original birth certificates. Recently, the board has taken a liberal approach and in 1999 only two applicants were refused their original birth certificates.
However, the consultation process is lengthy. During the year only 45 birth certificates were issued, while 139 requests for certificates were received.
In its most recent annual report, the board said these procedures "led to adoptees feeling very frustrated at the search and reunion system and venting their frustration at staff in the adoption agencies and in the board, and it highlighted the need for legislation in this area".
The issue of information rights has been contentious for many years. As long ago as 1984 the Review Committee on Adoption Services stated that some parents "had placed children for adoption on the assumption that there would be no change in laws governing these placements".
Under the proposals, a division of a new Adoption Authority would provide a search and reunion service for adoptees. This would reduce the chances of an adopted person turning up unexpectedly on a birth parent's doorstep.