Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

The parents have advised me that the Circuit Court refused to hear the case on 8 June, stating it should be heard in the High Court. There have been previous examples of refusals or reluctance to grant passport applications. I dealt with one such case, although unfortunately I resigned for political reasons shortly after I issued an instruction on it. I was told the Attorney General's office had concerns about this issue. Something is happening in the undergrowth that I do not understand. I hope I am not doing anyone a wrong but I just do not get it.

The DNA is absolute. We should not expect parents to incur all the costs associated with High Court cases simply to assert their rights. We issue passports in circumstance which do not approximate the rights to citizenship this child enjoys by reason of the DNA. As a political system, we should not be making parents look to the High Court to provide passports for their children if the DNA is cast iron guaranteed. We need to exercise discretion and pragmatic common sense.

Even before the Circuit Court issued its decision, there was a resistance to issuing passports. The original reasons given for this resistance was that the surrogacy laws and the recommendations of the commission on assisted human reproduction needed to be addressed. These are complex issues which must be debated in this House but parents and their children will be waiting several years before they are resolved. Meanwhile, the children are without passports or citizenship.

I do not think anyone would challenge the Tánaiste if he exercised his discretion to issue a passport. I ask him to consider the matter carefully.

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