The Irish government is to bring in new laws to permit adopted people over 18 years to be given the name of their birth mother. However the identity of their fathers may be protected if their name is not on the birth certificate.

Its Adoption Bill, due to become law next year, will also give parents who gave up their children for adoption access to information about the children once they reach the age of 18.

It will also allow, for the first time, some 45,000 people who were brought up in religious children's homes in the Republic to have access to their original birth files.

Although people who lived in State institutions can access their birth files under the Freedom of Information Act, it is a cumbersome and barred to those who were in religious homes.

It comes after years of campaigning by people

Junior health minister Mary Hanafin said: "The new legislation will attempt to strike a balance between a person's right to information and a person's right to privacy."

Childrens' Minister, Mary Hanafin this week confirmed that if the father's name was not on an adopted person's birth certificate, they would not be able to access the name on files held by the adoption agency involved.

And mothers who do not feel ready to meet the child they gave up for adoption can insert a "no contact veto" on their files, says a report in the Irish Independent.

Birth parents will be allowed trace children they gave up for adoption through a contact register, similar to the one run in the UK.

The new laws will also give birth mothers an automatic right to get progress reports on their child from adoptive parents.