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

This is a complex debate, as I have acknowledged from the beginning. The issue is definitely evolving, as we can see from the approach I have taken in the Bill to extend automatic rights to unmarried fathers where they have been living with the mother for a time. There were a number of questions concerning cohabitation. The Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Act contains a definition of cohabitation.

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It is normally understood as a committed and intimate relationship. It will be for the court to determine and have evidence on cohabitation. Courts are adept at looking for the kind of information that a couple could present in that respect. That would only come up if the situation was contested between the couple who are living together, because it is automatic if they are living together after 12 months. If a disagreement arose subsequently and if the father said he had lived there for 12 months, including for three months after the birth of the child, there is a definition of cohabitation in the civil partnership Act, but it is also up to the court to examine that and look for the evidence it would need to prove cohabitation. That would not be a major issue.

I pointed out the various elements in this debate. We have just heard an argument, and Deputy Boyd Barrett said it too, that there should be exceptions - that it should not necessarily be automatic. It is automatic for marital fathers, and the mother has the rights by virtue of giving birth. There is constitutional protection for the married mother and father. One could not take that away, nor would one want to, although it can happen through a court dispute about access and custody, separation or divorce. The Bill reflects existing constitutional protections for marital fathers. We are moving towards giving greater rights to non-marital fathers. Where a father has ongoing and real involvement, we are making it very easy with the statutory declaration. The information is given much more readily than it was before. It is interesting, as Deputies say, that there has not been much discussion of this. It is surprising, given the importance of the father’s role, marital or non-marital, in a child’s life. I am surprised at the number of men who do not realise that by getting a statutory declaration signed they get full guardianship rights.

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