Dan Neville (Limerick, Fine Gael)

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to the debate. I congratulate the Minister and wish her well. Like everybody else, I know her qualities and her commitment to many social issues. She is particularly sensitive to children's issue and is an excellent choice.

This is a highly complex issue. I was a member of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Constitutional Amendment on Children. We expected that within months of beginning discussions and taking submissions we would produce a report. However, the area is so complex and difficult it took us two years to finalise a report. We did so with the consensus of all members of the committee. All parties subscribed to the contents of the report.

This will require very serious debate because many organisations have serious views on many aspects of it. Deputy Ó Fearghaíl was also a member of the committee and he understands what I am saying and is nodding in agreement. This discussion on the proposed amendment will be very serious and in-depth. It will not go through like other amendments which were, on the face of it, straightforward. This is not a straightforward amendment; it is highly complex.

I commend the committee Chairman, Mary O'Rourke, and Vice Chairman, Deputy Michael Noonan, who put their heart and soul into ensuring that despite the lawyers we finalised the wording after two years and that there was consensus on the report. The committee was established in November 2007. It issued three reports, and the final report was issued in March 2010. Our brief was to deal with the constitutional change and statutes and case law concerning adoption, guardianship, case proceedings, custody and access to children and to make a recommendation on how the Constitution could be amended to enshrine and enhance the protection of children.

The committee recommended the recognition of children's rights and recognising the role of parents with regard to primacy, and being natural carers, educators and protectors of the child. There is much debate on the roles of the parent and the State with regard to the difficulties of the affect of a constitutional change on the rights of the child on parents.

The wording proposed by the committee specifically states that the State should ensure that all children of the State are equal and that the State should not discriminate between children. It recommended that the proposed wording of the constitutional amendment should require the State by proportional intervention to support all children. We were certain that all children in the State are to be equal and have the same status under the Constitution. There was much discussion on this with regard to people who have come to Ireland from abroad to work here and whose children were born here. It was highlighted that society has changed, thanks be to God, in the past 40 or 50 years and children of single parents should have absolute equal rights with all other children.

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