This is an overview of criticism and commentary on the Draft Information and Tracing Bill 2022 from the Clann Project and Article Eight Advocacy. There are links to further material including our full Briefing Note and proposed Committee Stage amendments throughout. We have submitted a complaint to the European Commission since should the Bill go forward without amendment it will breach primary and secondary EU law. We have also written to the Data Protection Commission raising our concerns with the Bill in its current state as the DPC is responsible for overseeing the application of the relevant piece of EU secondary law, the General Data Protection Regulation.
<aside> 📄 If you want more detail, our full Briefing Note is available here [PDF]
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<aside> 🗣️ The Bill sets out to establish a statutory right to know one’s identity. The Bill does not, as has been claimed, give people a new right of access to information.
If people have been unable to access information up until now it has been because they were (and still are) actively prevented from exercising their rights.
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There is no automatic access to birth certificates and no rights to all personal files held by the State, religious orders and adoption agencies. The Bill proposes that State officials will choose what sections of the file to release, which is in breach of affected people’s rights to their personal data under the EU GDPR, rights enshrined under the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, and their rights under the Irish Constitution. There is no mechanism for mothers and relatives to access information unless the children in question died in certain institutions. This Bill discriminates against all those affected by forced family separation: adopted people, their parents and relatives.
Before the release of birth certificates some adopted people must attend a mandatory information session about their parents’ privacy rights. Over the past 17 years just 156 parents have registered that they do not want contact with their adult children. Adopted people are singled out for discriminatory and offensive treatment in breach of their rights under EU law and their rights under the Irish Constitution.