Michael McCarthy (Cork South West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the fact that we are debating this. I acknowledge the work of the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy Fitzgerald, in this area and I commend her for fulfilling the programme for Government and realising the commitment to hold a referendum on children's rights. This is significant, and I do not say it lightly. It behoves us to acknowledge these occasions when they present themselves.

I refer to the McKenna judgment.

I accept the ruling of the court in this area and I accept the need to be balanced. It was never fair that the Government would fund one side of a campaign, however in instances like this there will be skewed implications from a judgment like that because, effectively, one is telling the national broadcaster and commercial stations to give half of their broadcast time to persons, groups and organisations who are on the opposing side of this referendum. I am not taking from anyone's democratic right to oppose it, but it is a bit ridiculous that someone, for the purposes of accessing broadcast time, can deliberately oppose the referendum. This referendum is about children's rights, nothing else. I had occasion last week to write a letter to the editor of the Southern Starbecause a letter writer the previous week had written that, in effect, this is about the State controlling one's family. Of course, these fundamentalists who go on with that kind of hysterical lunacy will go on to argue that the State wants to take one's children forcibly and all that kind of old rubbish and hyperbole. The McKenna judgment is responsible in many instances for allowing that kind of lunacy to prevail. I ask, in the context of referenda, that the McKenna judgment be examined and that the Government would seek to address the clear negative implications of that which detract from a good debate.

This debate is entirely compatible with the debate we have had in the past couple of nights in this Chamber on the Magdalene laundries and, in particular, the role of religious orders. This is an opportunity for the Catholic hierarchy to redeem itself in terms of protection of children and children's rights but there has been a deafening silence. That is quite worrying. It is appalling to look back to that era of the Magdelene laundries and those idioms and sayings, such as that mentioned earlier that "children should be seen and not heard". "Spare the rod and spoil the child" was effectively a voucher to go off and flay children. This country has a shameful record on the treatment of children down through the years. There is a catalogue of reports - the Murphy report, the Cloyne report, the Kilkenny incest case, the Roscommon case - of appalling and shameful neglect. This, while, unfortunately, it will not eliminate it, will go a significant way to enshrining children's rights in the Constitution.

Two former Labour Party Senators in the 1970s, former President Mary Robinson and the President, Michael D. Higgins, proposed Private Members' legislation on the status of illegitimacy. In the context of that debate, there were Members of that House on that occasion who put the interests of children beneath the interests of property owners. They had more respect for and cause to think about the rights of property owners as opposed to the rights of children. It is shameful and appalling. I am glad that the Bill is here. We are focused on the present. I hope there will be a robust debate on this significant referendum but we should never forget the historical context that has allowed us to reach this point.

This is not about the State micro-managing families, enforced vaccination or going into one's house to remove one's children. This is about giving rights to children and enshrining those in the Constitution. It is about recognising that children do suffer in families and intervening in those exceptional circumstances when those unfortunate situations arise.

The groups and organisations that support this referendum are worth mentioning: UNICEF Ireland, the ISPCC, the Children's Rights Alliance, Barnardos, the Irish Foster Care Association, the Children's Ombudsman, Ms Emily O'Reilly-----

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