Dr. Geoffrey Shannon:

It is a question of proportionality and of examining the current approach. I had the opportunity to discuss this matter with people and I am of the view that it is only a matter of time before litigation arises in respect of it and that Ireland ends up before the European Court of Human Rights. If a birth mother is lying in a hospital bed and is trying to defend proceedings, she would have a fairly decent case to argue that one's Article 8 rights had been infringed. I accept everything Senator Colm Burke states but we need to consider a number of issues. I do not have a fixed view about how we dealt with or characterise this matter. However, I do have a fixed view another matter. In the trauma and emotion which follows the birth of a child, it is more difficult for a birth mother to defend proceedings such as those to which we are referring. I am coming at this from the point of view of considering how we might ensure that fewer children end up in our care system. This is something to which I am passionately committed because family support sometimes ranks as a poor third to child protection and alternative care in the battle for resources and professional time. We must ensure that we do enough at the emergency care order pre-birth hearing to clarify the position for the prospective mother.

If she is in a position to act responsibly, we do not have to take the child into the care system. That is what this provision is all about.