A group of Senators have published legislation they say would guarantee all adopted people a right to their original birth certificate.

It would enshrine the right in law in Ireland for the first time.

Under the measures, the adoption authority would also act as an agency if parents and children wanted to contact each other.

Similar legislation has been in Scotland since the 1930s, England and Wales since the 1970s and Northern Ireland since 1987.

Fianna Fáil Senator Averil Power - herself an adoptee - says the bill they have published balances rights of all concerned.

She also says that she has received letters from other adopted people.

“Having finally met my birth mother a few years ago, I now have answers to these questions. I am also fortunate to have had the chance to get to know her, my half siblings and the rest of my second family.

However, I am one of a tiny minority of adoptees who have been able to find their mothers through the National Adoption Contact Preference Register. Without a right to their birth certs, thousands of Irish adoptees will never be able to get even the basic information about themselves that most people take for granted.

Adopted people in England have had a legal right to their birth certs, listing their original names and those of their birth mothers, since 1975. Forty years later, Irish adoptees still don't have this right.”

Senator Averil Power joined Sean Moncrieff on the show: