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AN OIREACHTAS COMMITTEE has been told that people who were illegally adopted as children feel they are forced to ‘continuously break the law’ because the birth certificates they use contain false information.
As part of its pre-legislative scrutiny of the Birth Information and Tracing bill, the Committee on Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth today heard views from a number of organisations.
The legislation will enshrine in law a right for adopted people to access their birth certificates, and birth and early life information.
Representatives from the In it together – Who Am I? group told the committee that each of their birth certificates “contain false information making them illegal, not just incorrect”.
There are 151 officially recognised cases of false birth registrations, but the group said DNA discoveries suggest this number is higher.
They also said there is a failure to acknowledge that the descendants of these 151 people are also impacted.
“The state’s inability to provide a solution is now causing each of us to continually break the law while knowingly using false identities,” the committee heard.
The organisation said the use of DNA is critical in both verifying the information held in files and vital in proving identity. In addition to making counselling available to all, they said the State needs to provide access to qualified genealogists to work with them to enable them to find our identity.
“There is nothing in the current Bill to allow the members of this group to access their family data, even when their ancestors are deceased, nor to rectify those false entries. This is leading to a continuation of false certification as the false information is carried forward by each new generation.”
The committee also heard from representatives from the Adoption Loss/The Natural Parents Network of Ireland, who said the title of the bill should be changed to reflect the fact that there are mothers, fathers and other relatives who also seek to contact their adult children.
The group has called for mothers to be able to read their files in the presence of a social worker and for them to be facilitated in writing a statement to correct or add information, as they are the only “true witnesses” to the circumstances surrounding their separation from their child.
Representatives said they also want the Adoption Authority immediately trace and write to all people registered as adopted to inform them of the fact of their adoption.
Alice McEvoy of Solas for Mothers said natural mothers have a problem with the use of the term ‘birth mothers’ in the bill, stating that it is “offensive and reduces mothers to that of incubators”.
The committee was told that this term can be triggering for some women, who were referred to in institutions initially as ‘first offenders’ and then as ‘birth mothers’ after they gave birth and their children were taken away.
McEvoy also asked that terms such as “given up” be removed from the bill as “we were forced to give up our children for adoption”.
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PA, WI and MI all still need to be counted correctly also…
@Eddie: They are.
@Tricia G: oh they are not counted “Correctly”
@Eddie: Evidence? Not some randomer YouTube or twitter or partisan news outlet, but actual independently verifiable evidence
oh and don’t forget Nevada also…
Recount them with an “independently verifiable” source and then we can all go back to worrying about the China flu.
@Eddie: well said
@Eddie: “Correctly” means showing a win for Trump despite him having fewer votes, right?
@Eddie: sure why not recount all 50 states just to be extra sure. How do we even know for certain Florida is correct.
@Diarmaid Mac Aonghusa: Correctly mean counting the legal votes and destroying illegal/invalid votes. If that means Trump getting more Electoral College votes then so be it…
@ED209: ah it’s only the states with Democratic Governors that appear to have “irregularities”.
It Biden was/is concened about the count in other states then he is quite rightly allowed to go through that states process to get a recount.
@Eddie: you’re gonna miss trump but you’ll get over it…. I hope.
@Eddie: Lol! this is awesome. Get ‘em Eddie
@Eddie: You know he’s lost. This isn’t a few hundred votes that you need to scam. This is thousands in multiple states and with the added democratic mandate of a huge victory in the popular vote. Nobody is arguing against a recount in a close call but the game of pretending that postal votes don’t count or are fraudulant is going nowhere and you know it. Your boy told us this was his plan – attack mail in votes before the election and then claim it is a scam afterwards. No one is buying it, not even Fox News.
@thesaltyurchin: :)
@Diarmaid Mac Aonghusa: Electoral College is there to stop elections been won by the “popular” vote… so no need to keep referring to it… it’s irrelevant.
Actually – wonder what’s going on with Fox News lately – they must be all on the piss with Alex Jones…
Anyways – only hanging around today to see what the craic is with our own
dodgy crew… has #Count5Leo resigned yet?
@Eddie: But by that reconning couldn’t the same logic be said about those states that have Republican Governors. How can you trust them that they have no irregularities and aren’t trying to swing the election?
Arizona and Georgia are gone blue this year, Alaska will stay red, North Carolina should have been called for Trump already.
Georgia will go to a recount either way, it’s within the margin of being a legit recount
There is no excuse for Arizona it should have been called long before now. Not good seeing people still standing around with guns it’s very intimidating for people living and working there.
@Joe Johnson: ‘mercaw. Land of the free… just like Iran. Lol
@Joe Johnson: Fox called it very early for biden.
We could be in for a few eye openers yet
@WreckDefier: not really. Biden is 45k ahead in Penn. He has over 270 with that. No recount will change 45k votes, nor will all the cries of voter fraud with evidence change it. Trump could win all the other states but he’d still lose
@Ger: The problem is trump and his supporters are getting a dose of reality. The actual courts of law in real life require verifiable proof. It’s not their little fox news bubble where you can just shout voter fraud and judge jeanine will nod and agree with you.
@WreckDefier: red car or blue car… either way the milky bar gets eaten.
Whether its Biden or Trump, the fact the winner has already been declared, as mentioned in the article, ‘by several media outlets’ should be worrying. As unlikeable Trump is, the fact is he and his team are entitled to challenge various aspects and counts of the election. Just as Al Gore did in 2000, and Jill Stein did in 2016. Allowing the media or anyone else just declare the winner without going through the proper procedure is not a practice I think will serve the US public in the long run. Fine, now its to the benefit of a popular left-leaning candidate who’s victory will end the presidency of someone many dislike but next time it might be the opposite. Or maybe next time the media will not be as friendly to a candidate preferred by progressive voters. Come December, after Trump (or Biden in other contested states) have their say in court, the institutions that have allowed the one of world’s oldest and most powerful democracies to continue its smooth transfer of power will continue and as long as people have faith in these institutions it will continue for generation to come.
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