Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

I move amendment No. 5:

In page 3, between lines 15 and 16, to insert the following:

3.—Section 29 of the Principal Act is amended by inserting the following subsections after subsection (4):

"(5) Nothing contained in this section shall operate to prohibit—

(a) the preparation of a report of proceedings under Part III, IV or VI by—

(i) a barrister or a solicitor,

(ii) subject to subsection (6), a person falling within a class of persons representing, and authorised in writing by, the Board, within the meaning of section 225(1) (as amended by section 16 of the Child Care (Amendment) Act 2007) of the Children Act 2001, for the purposes of this subsection, or

(iii) a person falling within any other class of persons specified in regulations made under subsection (7) for the purposes of this subsection,

(b) the publication of a report prepared in accordance with paragraph(a), or

(c) the publication of the decision of any court in such proceedings, in accordance with rules of court, provided that the report or decision does not contain any information which would enable the parties to the proceedings or any child to which the proceedings relate to be identified and, accordingly, unless in the special circumstances of the matter the court, for reasons which shall be specified in the direction, otherwise directs, a person referred to in paragraph (a) may, for the purposes of preparing such a report—

(i) attend the proceedings, and

(ii) have access to any relevant court documents, subject to any directions the court may give in that behalf.

(6) The Board referred to in subsection (5)(a)(ii) shall consult with the Minister before authorising a class of persons for the purposes of subsection (5).

(7) The Minister may, after consultation with the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, make regulations specifying a class of persons for the purposes of subsection (5) if the Minister is satisfied that the publication of reports prepared in accordance with subsection (5)(a) by persons falling within that class is likely to provide information which will assist in the better operation of this Act, in particular in relation to the care and protection of children.

(8) Nothing contained in this section shall be construed to prejudice the generality of—

(a) any other provision of this Act (including this Act as amended by the Child Care (Amendment) Act 2007) or any thing which may be done under any such provision,or

(b) section 267(2) of the Children Act 2001.

(9) In subsection (5), "proceedings" include proceedings commenced but not completed before the commencement of that subsection.".".

The purpose of this amendment is to modify the in camera rule in child care proceedings, set out in section 29 of the 1991 Act, to allow for the attendance at and reporting of child care proceedings in specified circumstances and by specified classes of persons. There is a need to use an evidence base in approaching policy making in this area. To keep the workings of the 1991 Act under ongoing review and in the context of the important role of the courts in the child care system, there is a need to open matters up to scrutiny in a balanced way.

The amendment reflects, in broad terms, the changes introduced in section 40 of the Civil Liability and Courts Act 2004, which modified the in camera rule in family law proceedings. It provides that barristers and solicitors and those representing and authorised in writing by the advisory board, following regulations specified by the Minister following consultation with the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, have access to documents and prepare a report for publication of child care proceedings. Rules of court can be drawn up to regulate this. No child can be identified as a result of this change.

One of the key points that arose in the discussion on the proposed amendment to the Constitution was people's concern that children are being taken away from them. An extremely irresponsible campaign was mounted in a publication called Alive Magazine, which is widely circulated in churches, suggesting that I intended to seize vast numbers of children from their parents. It is important that we should carry out this kind of research in the courts charged with dealing with these matters.

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