Mother and Baby Home survivors campaign for referendum on right to birth informtation

They are looking for more answers.

Mother and Baby Home survivors are calling for a referendum that would allow them constitutional assurance that those separated from parents or children would get access to birth information. Looking to get proper access to these documents from the State, several groups came together before an Oireachtas committee on Tuesday to call on the government to rethink the Birth Information and Tracing Bill 2021. This new proposed legislation is being backed by the Minister for Children Roderic O’Gorman, and would see a law being created that would give survivors access to birth certificates and birth information, BreakingNews.ie reports. For people without answers to their origins, or mothers not knowing what became of their baby, the new laws proposed still won't fulfil their needs here. Politicians were told by the groups that they must provide some type of solution for people whose birth certificates have false information. Giving the example of simply applying for a driver's license, illegal adoptees are knowingly breaking the law. Lisa Kiernan from the In It Together campaign spoke to TDs about her experience of working in Ireland and how her mother was not only illegally adopted but was "bought, sold and trafficked." She also explained how her own identification is false as she knows her mother's birth surname is not correct. The In It Together campaign says that there are currently 1,544 false birth records known to date, with the Government estimating the figure to be at 151. They have also said that the proposed legislation only deals with false birth registrations.