Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I wish to address my question to our guests from Barnardos and the Children's Rights Alliance. I find it astonishing that organisations dedicated to promoting the rights and best interest of children apparently do not regard the circumstances in which children are brought into the world as matters in which children's rights arise. Their submissions do not appear to give primacy to motherhood or fatherhood. It appears they are happy to contemplate that children might be brought into a world where it is foreseen and, indeed, desired that they will not enjoy the society of their natural biological parents. We are aware that there are circumstances in which people are unavoidably deprived of upbringing of one or other parent and we regard that as a tragedy in most cases. Has there been any internal debate in the two organisations about the appropriateness of such legislation or their support for the legislation given the deprivation of what I would assert are rights of the child?