Seán Ryan (Dublin North, Labour)

I move amendment No. 19:

In page 22, line 21, to delete "person" where it secondly occurs and substitute "father".

Deputy Penrose referred to this issue in his earlier contribution on an amendment. The purpose of the amendment is to improve the drafting of the Bill. As Deputy Penrose outlined, it is totally inappropriate that the mother is referred to in the Bill as "the mother" but the father is referred to as "the person". That is somewhat offensive.

In the context of amendment No. 20, section 22(3)(a), as currently drafted, states that where a married woman has a child with someone other than her spouse, the father must give a statutory declaration to say he is not the father. This is clearly an error. The Bill should provide that the husband would be required to give a statutory declaration that he is not the father. Our amendment corrects this error. We discussed this matter in great detail on Committee Stage. The Minister was not prepared to accept it but perhaps she will further reflect on it. The purpose of amendment No. 21 is to correct a drafting error.

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