A SURVEY has been launched to help improve services which connect mother and baby home survivors with their birth records.
The Irish Government has launched the online survey this week, which seeks to gain feedback on the experience of those who have used services created under the Birth Information and Tracing Act 2022.
The legislation provides access to birth certificates and birth and early life information for Irish people who were adopted, boarded out, nursed out, the subject of an illegal birth registration, or who spent time in a mother and baby home or county home as a child.
Birth information and tracing services were formally introduced under the Act when it came into effect on June 30, 2022.
Delivered by the Adoption Authority of Ireland and Tusla, more than 18,100 applications for birth and early life information have been completed since then, the Government confirmed this week.
The site of a former mother and baby home on Sean McDermot Street in Dublin, where Irish women were forced to give their children up for adoptionMore than 9,500 applications have also been made to the state’s statutory tracing service – which allows people to search for their birth relatives.
The Act also saw a contact preference register established, where adopted people can register their preferences in terms of making contact with birth relatives.
Minister for Children, Disability and Equality, Norma Foley announced the launch of the survey – which will ask those who have already used any of these services to provide anonymous feedback on their experiences – this week.
“I would strongly encourage the many thousands of people who have experience of the services established under the Birth Information and Tracing Act 2022 to take part in this online survey,” she said.
“Their views and experiences are essential to understanding what aspects of the services are working well and what aspects of the services need to be improved,” she added.
“They will help ensure that the services work as well as possible.”
The survey is a “key element of the ongoing review of the operation of the birth information and tracing services provided under the 2022 Act, to look at what is working well and what can be improved” a spokesperson for Mrs Foley’s department confirmed.
“The review will also involve more detailed interviews with service users and consultation with service providers,” they added.
The anonymous survey, which is open for submissions from June 10 to July 10, can be accessed here.
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