Jillian van Turnhout (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I know, which is why I have identified the issue. As a genealogist, I know that the office is under the auspice of the Minister's Department. Some have tried to suggest this is what the Bill is about, but that was not my perception on reading it.
The starting point for me is Article 8 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child on the preservation of identity. It states children have a right to an identity, an official record of who they are and that governments should respect their right to a name, a nationality and family ties. Most days we must deal with competing rights and I find myself questioning some of the issues involved. We all accept that the birth certificate of a child should provide all necessary available and accurate information on his or her origins. Today, I have read a publication by Treoir that claims denying information on identify can cause pain, anguish and genealogical bewilderment, a claim with which I fully agree. In an effort to better safeguard a child's right to an identity the Bill seeks to make the provision of such information compulsory, save in exceptional circumstances. We need to explore some of the competing rights and strike the appropriate balance. Section 6(1D) lists compelling reasons that exempt the mother from her legal obligation to provide details of the father. They are as follows:

(a) she does not know the identity of the father of the child;
(b) she does not know the whereabouts of the father of the child;
(c) she believes that providing the information is not in the best interests of the safety of the child...

In circumstances where the mother of the child maintains that she does not know the identity of the father, will the Minister consider establishing a register of men who believe they are a father? It would mean, for example, that if a mother opted to place her child for adoption, the issue of authentication of the potential father's claim could be addressed before the adoption could commence. If a mother says she does not know the identity of the father of her child and the child is placed for adoption, how do we ensure the right of somebody who believes he is the father is upheld?
Another way to deal with the issue is to give effect to the recommendations made by the Law Reform Commission in its 2010 report entitled, Legal Aspects of Family Relationships. In section 2.17 it called for a "system for a non-marital father to register his name on the birth certificate of a child in the absence of agreement with the mother". That recommendation led me to be immediately concerned about how the best interests of the child would be defined in such an instance.

Will the Minister explain why the recommendations of the Law Reform Commission of Ireland report in this regard were not brought forward in this Bill? The Law Reform Commission report recommended that exemption should extend to circumstances in which the mother has reason to fear for her safety as well as that of her child. I realise this is one of the competing rights. I strongly believe in a child's right to identity but often we have to deal with familial abuse, domestic violence, rape and incest. How does addressing these cases fit in with the right to identity? How do we ensure we draw the balance in the right place each time?

In some not-so-rare and extremely unfortunate cases, the pregnancy of a child is the result of familial abuse and incest. In circumstances where, for example, a 14-year-old girl registers the birth of a child, regardless of whether she is in the care of the State, known to State agencies or perhaps not known, is there a mechanism for the automatic involvement of the Child and Family Agency to ensure that all child protection and welfare considerations are examined? Let us consider a case where a 14-year-old is asked to register the birth name of the father. Unfortunately the period of pregnancy is not long enough for us to bring these cases to court. How we handle these situations is a matter of concern.

A more peripheral issue is that of surrogacy. I realise this will be dealt with in the Children and Family Relationships Bill but this point is more to do with registration. I have heard of cases in which we do not check the identity of mothers. For example, I could move to a different part of the country, register myself in another woman's name and have the baby. Then, the intended mother could register the birth in her name. In effect this amounts to a surrogacy arrangement without the knowledge of the State. I may go somewhere else in the country because in most cases neither doctors nor hospitals check the identity of the birth mother. This is an issue and I wonder whether we could examine it. I am unsure what the solution is and I am not suggesting we give every woman a DNA test, but perhaps we should consider requiring identification at the time of registering with the doctor or hospital and not only at the time of registering the birth, because I have seen it as a way of getting around surrogacy issues.

The final issue I wish to raise is peer consent. We all agree that the best interests of the child should be the primary consideration in determining the legislative framework to ensure joint registration of births. However, to maximise compliance and thus safeguard the child's right to identity and to be aware of who her parents are, we need to revisit the uncomfortable issue of consensual peer sexual activity. I will not go through the figures but it happens in Ireland. Let us consider the current arrangements under the Children First guidelines relating to withholding information. There is a real danger that women may refuse to name the fathers of their children on the birth register or involve them in the lives of their babies for fear of prosecution of the young father. Young fathers will continue to be advised by solicitors not to enter their name in the register of births or apply to become the child's legal guardian as they have committed a criminal offence. The rights of children to have the name of the father on the birth certificate and to have relationships with their fathers could be seriously affected where young fathers are inhibited from putting their names on birth certificates and applying for joint guardianship rights in respect of their children. I understand the Garda and the DPP use their discretion and tend to overlook the circumstances of a relationship before deciding whether to prosecute. I propose that the discretionary powers of the DPP in respect of such decisions should be placed on a statutory footing. Perhaps we could consider whether no prosecution of a child under 17 years should proceed without the consent of the DPP. This would recalibrate the arrangement.

I was going to bring up the motion we put forward in the House with Senator Bacik and the Labour Party Senators - I had the honour to second it - relating to marriage age and how certain exemptions may apply. Perhaps we can explore that another time.