Mary O'Rourke (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)

I welcome this opportunity to speak. Little did I think in the early days that we would be able to give Dáil Éireann our final report on the job we were given to do.

When we were getting ready for this, I remembered the remarks of Ms Justice Catherine McGuinness, chairman of the Law Reform Commission, in 1993 in her capacity as chairman of the Kilkenny incest inquiry. She stated then that a constitutional amendment to protect the rights of children would change the atmosphere in which child care cases would be approached as it would create an atmosphere of putting the child's rights first rather than considering first the rights of parents and the family. The committee strongly agrees with this statement. It has taken 17 years for agreement to be reached, a long time in legislative and Dáil terms.

The constitutional question of the rights and protection of children, which was the central focus of the committee's work, has come very much to the fore in recent months. Children are our future, we say it all the time. When we go to cumann meetings or visit schools, we talk about children being our future. It sounds trite when it is overused but it is true. All children should have a right to live a childhood that protects them, provides for them and prepares them for adult life. Sadly, as we are all too well aware, this is not always the case. Our legal framework, therefore, must be tailored and applied to protect the unique interests, needs and vulnerabilities of children.

The committee, which I had the honour to chair, was established to consider and report to the Houses of the Oireachtas, and we are now fulfilling that part of our mandate, on the proposals for constitutional reform contained in the Twenty-eighth Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2007. Speaking on the publication of the Bill, the former Taoiseach, Deputy Bertie Ahern, said: "It appears increasingly clear that the inadequate recognition in our constitutional law of the rights of children as individuals has to be addressed. That is an essential first step in creating a new culture of respect for the rights of the child". This overarching principle was at the heart of the work of the committee.

The committee's final report considers the proposed constitutional amendment concerning the acknowledgement and protection of the rights of children, the best interests of the child, the power of the state to intervene in the family, and adoption. The committee's first, and most important, recommendation is that a proposal for an amendment to the Constitution to enshrine and enhance the protection of the rights of children is submitted by referendum to the decision of the people. The committee then presented a wording for this amendment. I am pleased that we were able to reach cross-party consensus on the proposed wording. While it is true that seeking full consensus can take some time, that time was well spent in getting a better decision for children. There were some rocky moments, it was not all sweetness and light because we were talking about children. However, they were the one totem around which we could gather when times got difficult. We were then able to readdress the issue.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Vice Chairman of the committee, Deputy Michael Noonan, and all members of the committee for their commitment and dedication to our work under the leadership of their spokesmen, Deputy Alan Shatter of Fine Gael, Deputy Brendan Howlin for the Labour Party, Deputy Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin of Sinn Féin and members of my own party, Fianna Fáil. I also thank the Minister of State, Deputy Barry Andrews, for participating and contributing to our deliberations throughout the two years that we sat. The current Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Deputy Brendan Smith, also played a role for a short period in our early deliberations. The Minister of State, Deputy Anderws, attended all but one of our meetings. Attendance is a prerequisite, whether a person is a school teacher, a pupil or whatever. Those who turn up, deliberate and contribute are playing a full role.

I also wish to acknowledge the many individuals and organisations who took the time to contribute their views and expertise to the committee in the form of written submissions and briefings at meetings. These have been most helpful in informing our deliberations. In all, we had 62 meetings with 178 submissions, both written and oral. It was a vast amount of work and I pay tribute to our legal teams for preparing our interim and final reports. They are fine people who gave of their professionalism and expertise. It is routine to thank such people but they played a fine role in advising those of us who are not legal experts.

The committee's starting point was to endorse the principles identified by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child. These are non-discrimination in enjoyment of convention rights; that the best interests of children are a primary consideration in all actions concerning children; the right of the child to life, survival and development; and the right of the child to be heard in all matters concerning him or her. Reading such principles out, they sound right but I remember meeting after meeting in which one line of one clause would take up all of our deliberations at the meeting.

To implement these principles, the committee recommends that a new Article 42, entitled "Children", be inserted in the Constitution to replace the current Article 42. The new article contains an express acknowledgement of the rights of children, as individuals, including the right to have their welfare regarded as a primary consideration, while also expressly recognising that the primary and natural carers, educators and protectors of the welfare of a child are the child's parents.

We know from case law that differences remain in the treatment of children based on the marital status of their parents. The amendment proposed by the committee addresses this by providing constitutional recognition of the principles of non-discrimination and equality between children, irrespective of the marital status of their parents.

The amendment also requires that the child's voice is heard in any judicial and administrative proceedings affecting him or her, having regard to his or her age and maturity. The committee goes on to recommend that where parents fail in their responsibilities, the State will either supply or supplement the place of the parents in a manner that is proportionate. In presenting this wording the committee was concerned that parents would be assured that their rightful authority and pivotal role in relation to their children would not be undermined. It is not intended that the role of parents would be lessened or diminished in any way. The continued existence of Article 41 concerning the family will provide this assurance. There was considerable debate on Article 41 and how we could resolve what appeared to be its overriding prescriptions with what we wanted to achieve for children. In addition, any intervention in the family must be proportionate with a preference at all times for the preservation of the family.

In regard to adoption, the amendment would allow for the adoption of any child from a marital or non-marital family where his or her parents have failed in their responsibility for such a period of time as may be prescribed by law and where the best interests of the child require this. This would be a most important development for those children of married parents who are in long-term foster care but cannot be placed for adoption under our current constitutional framework. Under this amendment, these children would be eligible for adoption.

The committee considers that the wording it has presented for a constitutional amendment will ensure that the rights of children are given the strongest protection in the Constitution as well as advancing their best interests. If this amendment is passed, any future cases affecting children will be determined within a judicial framework that expressly recognises the constitutional rights of all parties concerned, namely, parents, the family and children.

This is the committee's third report and it brings to a conclusion our deliberations on the Twenty-eighth Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2007, in the course of which we held 62 meetings, received over 177 written submissions and heard evidence from persons and bodies whose expertise included the constitutional, criminal and family law, child protection, psychology, children's rights, child welfare and other fields of direct relevance to the matters under consideration. In September 2008 we presented our first interim report to the Houses of the Oireachtas. That report addressed the proposal to give legal authority for the collection and exchange of information on the sexual abuse of children. The committee recommended that legislation should be introduced to permit the exchange of soft information by the Garda Síochána and other statutory agencies for the purpose of child protection. I am pleased to note that the Minister for State, Deputy Barry Andrews, will publish the national vetting bureau Bill, which is a rather grand title, this year to implement our recommendations. When Archbishop Diarmuid Martin recently stated that he believes legislation is needed in this area, I felt like ringing him because I wrote to him previously to inform him that we had considered the issue and included a copy of our report. However, it appears that a lot of letters have been lost in recent times.

In May 2009 the committee presented a second interim report on the proposal to give legal authority to the creation of offences of absolute or strict liability in respect of sexual offences against children. I understand work is in progress on implementing the recommendations put forward in that report. I look forward to hearing the views of colleagues on the proposed amendment.

Having expressed my heartfelt thanks to all who have helped the committee in its deliberations, I feel deprived because I do not know what we will do at 5 p.m. on Wednesdays.

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