Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It might be helpful to address that particular issue. We had a discussion as regards that issue, as indeed we had on Second Stage. I have indicated some amendments that I am bringing in which would make it more likely that non-marital fathers would sign the statutory declaration and that they could do that at the same time as the birth registration. That is without moving towards the automatic guardianship which some Deputies had asked for and, indeed, which other Deputies on the committee had expressed some serious concern in relation to.

What is at the heart of the Bill, and what I have described as the golden thread running through the Bill, is the definition of "best interest". For the first time we have gone into detail, as I have already said to the committee, about what constitutes best interest. The point I want to make in response to the Deputy is that we have linked with quite a wide range of organisations that work directly with families where there is violence. We have included in the best interest description, when the court is making a decision about a child in relation to access, custody, or guardianship, "The court shall have regard to family violence that has occurred or is likely to occur in the family of the child including the impact or likely impact of such violence on the safety of the child and other members of his or her family, the child's personal well-being, including the child's psychological and emotional well-being, the victim of such violence, and the capacity of the perpetrator of the violence to properly care for the child and the risk, if any, that the perpetrator poses to the child." That is an interesting point that is often spoken about. We have gone into quite a lot of detail. It is one of the sections---