A database created by the Mother and Baby Homes Commission will now be sent to Tusla.
It's been sharply criticised for failing to open up records to survivors, and the speed at which it was brought through the Oireachtas.
Children's Minister Roderick O'Gorman said the aim was to preserve the work of the commission to aid in the tracing of relatives.
But Dr Maeve O'Rourke, lecturer in human rights at Maynooth University, says many survivors of the homes just don't have faith in Tusla to do that.
