Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)

During the debate on Second Stage, my colleague, Deputy Ferris, referred to section 22 as making fatherhood optional. If the father of a child refuses to co-operate and tends to be as unco-operative as possible, this section will make registering the father's name extremely difficult. It will put a massive burden on the mother of the child if she seeks to have the father's name on the birth certificate. Medical science has made progress in establishing paternity and those options are available. In practice, however, the fatherhood opt-out clause contained in the legislation will most severely affect children from working class and disadvantaged areas where mothers are often children themselves and where the resources for parentage tests, court orders and the like might be far out of a mother's reach.

There is another increasing problem. In a number of years we may find sisters marrying brothers because, in many cases, a mother cannot identify the father of her child. There needs to be some form of tracking. This issue is not dealt with in the Bill but it is an increasing problem for society and is found equally in urban and rural areas.

The Bill provides an opt-out. Young men should be encouraged to take responsibility for their children and this Bill appears to pull away from that. This Bill does not cover this issue. It should be closely examined.

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