Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I bring to the Minister of State's attention that a short time ago, my attention was brought to an opinion from a senior counsel which runs directly contrary to the opinion expressed by the Attorney General. He states that the crucial words in section 2(1) of the 2004 Act are undoubtedly that the term stillborn means a child who "at birth" and that with all due respect to the learned Attorney General's view, he cannot agree that the use of the words "at birth" can include the removal of the remains of a child in the course of a post mortem autopsy, as occurred here, and that the procedure is not even to be equated with a surgical procedure, as might occur at a birth by caesarean section. The conclusion of his opinion is that he is aware the Civil Registration (Amendment) Bill is currently on Committee Stage in the Dáil and that it seems to him to that the present lacuna in the registration system can only be cured by a statutory amendment to the definition of "stillborn child" to expressly include an unborn child of a given weight and age who dies in the womb of the mother as a result of the mother's death or, alternatively, that such an unborn child in such circumstances must be provided for in a separate category.

I know the Minister of State has received the advice of the Attorney General but this is the advice of a very respected senior counsel who practises extensively in this particular area of law and which runs directly counter to it. Did the Minister of State say there was a case before the courts?