Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time".

I thank the spokespersons from the Opposition parties for facilitating the taking of this Bill today.

Section 17 of the Child Care Act 1991 provides that the District Court may grant an interim care order in respect of a child on foot of an application by the Health Service Executive. The order may be made with or without parental consent in accordance with the section. The application may arise in circumstances where a child is being cared for under an emergency care order, often following a decision by An Garda Síochána to remove a child to safety under section 12 of the Child Care Act 1991. An interim care order may also arise as a result of an application by the Health Service Executive to take a child into its care in circumstances where there is an immediate and serious risk to the health or welfare of that child. Before granting an interim care order, the judge must be satisfied that an application for a care order in respect of the child has been or is about to be made.

The HSE recently made a submission to my Department concerning the need to increase the duration of an extension to an interim care order to 29 days. The submission set out the practice rationale for seeking to increase the period of an extension to an interim care order and sets out a strong case for urgent legislative change; hence, the Bill before us. In its submission, the HSE highlighted the difficulties it has been experiencing due to the necessity of having to go back to the District Court every eight days for extensions to interim care orders, including increased stress for all parties arising from the frequency of court appearances; the difficulties for social work staff in forming working relationships with a child and his or her family because of the frequency of adversarial court appearances; the amount of social workers' time taken up by constant court work; and increased legal costs in respect of HSE, families and guardians ad litem. It is a real issue that must be addressed on a variety of fronts.

In essence, the current application of section 17(2) of the Child Care Act 1991 is absorbing considerable court time and resulting in valuable social work time being expended in preparing for court cases and attending court hearings. This is not in the best interest of the child. It is my view that the HSE submission made a comprehensive and convincing case and I am therefore bringing forward the Child Care (Amendment) Bill 2013 to make the amendments that are urgently required to the Child Care Act 1991 in that regard. This is also being supported by many of the legal representatives on both sides who have been in contact about the legislation. In addition, the effect of the proposed amending legislation will be to facilitate, as far as possible, applications for orders or extensions to orders to be heard on the same day each week by the courts, which will facilitate proper planning and use of time. This would assist the courts and the HSE in processing these applications and reduce the number of court appearances for all parties involved.

I will now turn to the principal features of the Child Care (Amendment) Bill 2013. Section 1 amends section 17(2) of the Child Care Act 1991. Section 17(2)(a) of the Child Care Act 1991 currently allows for an interim care order for a period not exceeding 28 days in the absence of parental consent. Section 1(a) of the Child Care (Amendment) Bill 2013 will amend section 17(2)(a) by substituting "twenty-nine days" for "twenty-eight days". Section 17(2)(b) currently allows for an interim care order to exceed 28 days with parental consent. Section 1(a) of the Child Care (Amendment) Bill 2013 will amend section 17(2)(b) by substituting "twenty-nine days" for twenty-eight days". Section 1(b) of the Child Care (Amendment) Bill 2013 will amend section 17(2) of the Child Care Act 1991 by substituting "where an extension is to exceed twenty-nine days" for "where an extension is to exceed eight days" in order to provide that an application to extend an interim care order can be granted for a period of up to 29 days without parental consent. Section 2 is a standard provision providing for the Short Title and collective citation.

I have brought this amending Bill forward as a matter of priority. The effect of this amendment is that on the enactment of the 2013 Bill, an interim care order or an extension to an interim care order, in the absence of parental consent, may be granted for a period not exceeding 29 days. I commend this Bill to the House and I look forward to hearing the Deputies' views.

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