Martin Ferris (Kerry North-West Limerick, Sinn Fein)

I echo the sentiments expressed by my colleague, Deputy Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin, on this Fianna Fáil Private Members' Bill. Sinn Féin supports the Bill, which addresses an important issue, albeit with some reservations.

Thousands of children have been left in residential care over the years or shuttled from foster parent to foster parent with infrequent visits from social workers. However, they are sometimes left in the care of foster parents who will be the only family they ever know. If they are children of marital families, the foster parent will be unable to adopt them as natural parents continue to retain all their rights over the child and have access to them. If the child has been placed in voluntary care, parents can reclaim the child at any time, a position endorsed by the Supreme Court in what is known as the Baby Ann case.

As it is not legally necessary for a foster parent to be married, fostering involves greater flexibility than adoption. Many people, including older people, gay couples and single women and men, find fostering an easier route to pursue than the restrictive and difficult nature of adoption rules. This should not be the case and the issue is not addressed in the Bill. The adoption system needs substantial overhaul and reform.

Fostering is less secure than adoption because foster parents have a number of duties and few rights. Should a foster parent attempt to adopt a child in his or her care without securing the approval of the Health Service Executive, he or she risks being held liable for the costs of a case being brought against him or her. This imposes a major financial risk on people. While Sinn Féin supports the Bill on a referendum on children's rights, unless a referendum is followed by legislation to rectify the anomalies I have outlined, it will be of little use.

Foster parents are caught in a bind. Children in foster families do not have the same stability found in adoptive families. Save through court proceedings, they are not independently represented and orders can and have been made which have resulted in children being taken from parents with whom they have lived for years and given to virtual strangers without cognisance of their welfare. Article 12 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights require separate representation for children in such a scenario. The State has failed to implement this requirement as it is much more concerned with what it would cost to pay a guardian ad litem than listening to what a child wants.

The proposed constitutional amendment contained in the final report of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Constitutional Amendment on Children provided for children's voices to be heard in judicial and administrative matters which concern themselves. It is disappointing that the Fianna Fáil Party has chosen to disregard everything else the joint committee stated and focus on adoption alone.

While it is a welcome gesture on the part of the Government to introduce a full Department for Children and Youth Affairs, it is disgraceful that this Fine Gael-Labour Party coalition is to further delay the long promised and long overdue constitutional referendum on the rights of children. Both parties played a key role in the joint committee which agreed a wording to strengthen the rights and protections of children in the Constitution. My colleague, Deputy Ó Caoláin, paid tribute to everyone involved in the proceedings of the joint committee. Unfortunately, its report remains on a shelf. Notwithstanding the commitments given by both Government parties in their manifestos to hold a referendum on children's rights, the Taoiseach has stated the three referendums to be held in the autumn will not include a referendum on affording protection to children. The coalition failed on children's rights before it even reached 100 days in office. This regressive decision must be overturned.

This Bill should not be used as a substitute for holding a referendum that will enshrine children's rights. While it is a welcome move, it was unfortunate that details of the Roscommon abuse case has to emerge for people to wake up to the reality that legal difficulties arise when dealing with marital families. The proposed amendment would not do much to help children in such scenarios. If a referendum were held and passed tomorrow, it would make little difference to the children who reside within the confines of dysfunctional child services. It would not alter the fact that the recommendations of Tracey Fay and Ryan reports and the Monageer Inquiry have not been implemented. It will not magically provide 24 hour, on-call social workers, resource underfunded services with overworked staff or provide an avenue for children to be heard and their best interests made paramount in all matters concerning them.

While I support this Bill, it is a lost opportunity and I call upon the Government parties to put their commitment on the record that they will hold a children's rights referendum immediately and implement the outstanding recommendations of the relevant reports. They owe it to the children of Ireland to do so.

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