On Thursday, 5 November 2015, Dr Fergus Ryan of the Department of Law at Maynooth University appeared before the Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children, speaking on proposed adoption information and tracing laws. Chaired by Jerry Buttimer TD, the Oireachtas committee comprises members of both Houses, from all parties, as well as independents. The Committee is currently engaged in pre-legislative scrutiny of the Government's General Scheme of the Adoption (Tracing and Information) Bill 2015.
In his presentation, Dr Ryan assessed the Government's proposals, which he noted were long overdue, and made recommendations for improvements to the proposed bill. He called, in particular, for changes to some of the more draconian provisions of the scheme. He also addressed certain constitutional aspects of the proposal, commenting that Parliament has considerable discretion as regards the particular balance to be struck between competing interests. Fergus also provided a more detailed written submission to the Committee.
Fergus was responsible for the drafting of a separate Adoption (Identity and Information) Bill 2014 that was passed by the Seanad in early 2015, sponsored by Senators Averil Power, Jillian VanTurnhout and Fidelma Healy Eames.
The full presentation and discussion are available online.
Dr Fergus Ryan lectures in Family Law on the Department's LLB programme and in Gender, Sexuality and the Law and Marriage and the Law on the LLM (Global Legal Studies) masters degree.