The almost four-year delay by the Government in setting up an adoption contact register was despicable, Dr Mary Henry (Ind) told the House. Many organisations and individuals had repeatedly asked for the establishment of what must be described as a human right.
"There is no question here of anyone who does not want to be found being sought out. We are all only too well aware of the stigma of single motherhood in the past and, indeed, despite the improved attitude here, the report on abortion produced by Evelyn Mahon and her colleagues in Trinity College shows that the fear of social condemnation is an important cause in young women seeking abortions in England."
She reminded the House that a contact register was a register on which mothers or fathers who gave children up for adoption could put their names.
Adoptees over the age of 18 could put their names there, too. It was only people seeking each other who would be on the register.
Dr Henry said that even after a register was set up there would still be problems, because some women had been forced or encouraged to give false names. Those whose children had been sent to America in the 1950s and 1960s and also to England had the problems of distance as well.
Ms Mary Hanafin, Minister of State for Children, said a comprehensive consultation process had had to be undertaken. This was now complete and she would be bringing a draft scheme of a Bill to Government within the next few weeks.