Michael Colreavy (Sligo-North Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Sinn Féin supports what the Minister is doing here and will actively engage with people to ensure they come out to bring about the change that we feel is so necessary and that the referendum is passed.

To put this in context, when the Constitution was written in 1937, Ireland was a different place. We had just come out from under British occupation, we had many Victorian values and we had a different, imposed legal system.

The past 70 years in this State have seen a seismic shift in attitudes, particularly towards marginal sections of society. As a people, we have moved away from Victorian thinking towards more open and liberal attitudes as to how citizens should be treated. Up to quite recently, societal thinking on children could be best summed up by the phrase "Children should be seen but not heard." This has changed and society now genuinely seeks the best welfare of the children of the nation. This is partly because children are vulnerable and require protection, but in the context of resources it is also because we recognise our children are the greatest possible investment we can make for the future. Also, the needs of children have changed since the Constitution was written. Change has come about for these reasons and because of the examples of cases where children were abused in their homes and institutions and the State, for whatever reason, was powerless to act effectively.

I remember reading newspapers and listening to comment on some of the more horrific cases of child abuse in family homes. I was angry as a citizen that in my name the State had failed those vulnerable children. I remember feeling a sense of frustration that the Government, which was acting on my behalf and on behalf of the nation, could not get its act together and do the right thing by children. I hope no Irish person will ever have to go through such frustration and anger, because the State was no good to children who were abused. The State should have been there in loco parentis to ensure the right thing was done for those children, but the State let them and the nation down. It should have made a resolution then that this hurt could never happen again.

This is what makes this referendum so important and I commend the Minister and the Department on bringing it forward. Some people will criticise it and many will think it goes too far and that an evil state exists to remove children from good parents. However, there will be safeguards within the legislation. There have been examples, particularly in Britain, of where social services went totally overboard and misunderstood communications between social workers and children, whether this was a result of inadequate social work education or policy. Fundamental mistakes were made there which were very painful for parents and damaging to children. Therefore, the policies we put in place must be tight because the last thing we want is for the social workers intervening to protect the child to instead damage the interest of the child. We cannot and will not tolerate that.

We need to modernise the Constitution to reflect the realities as they are today. Constitutional reform is necessary so that we, as a Government and society, can affirm children as full citizens of the State, with rights both within the family unit and where necessary separate from the family unit. Under the current Constitution, children enjoy the same rights as all citizens, but this does not reflect the fact that the needs of children are vastly different from those of adults. Currently, there is no special status for children in the Constitution. They are practically invisible in it. What may be interpreted from the Constitution is that the rights of the family may supersede the rights of children, as pointed out by Mrs. Justice Catherine McGuinness, the chairperson of the Kilkenny incest investigation, a long time ago. This needs to be rectified and that is the reason this amendment is necessary. If anybody questions the necessity for the amendment, the Kilkenny investigation demonstrates simply a good, painful example of the need for it.

The referendum, if passed, will give children rights within the Constitution for the first time. Article 42(A).1 will state: "The State recognises and affirms the natural and imprescriptible rights of all children and shall, as far as practicable, by its laws protect and vindicate those rights." This is the first time the State will acknowledge the rights of children as individuals with constitutional rights. Sinn Féin will propose an amendment to this to include the word "equally". I know the Minister would not want any unintended discrimination against children here, whether based on class, gender, creed or race and therefore we will propose this amendment.

Article 42(A).2 and 3 will aim to rectify the double standards that in the past prevented agencies from intervening in a family case where a child was at risk, or where agencies were involved, did not provide them with the policies and the rights to make a difference to the rights of those children. An example of this is to be seen in the Roscommon abuse case. Due to the constitutional position of the marital family under Irish law, a higher risk threshold must be reached before the State can intervene when a child is at risk. Furthermore, a child of a marital family generally, may not be adopted, even if in the care of the State for the whole of its life. It is legally possible to provide for adoption under the Constitution, but it is very difficult to do and rarely happens due to the legal difficulties.

I disagree with those who say the family will lose some of the protection afforded by the Constitution.

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