Kathleen Funchion (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate the Minister on her appointment and wish her every success in her new role in the Department of Children and Youth Affairs. I look forward to working constructively with her. I thought yesterday's briefing was excellent. I was happy to attend it. It was very useful. I hope similar briefings will be organised in the future. I hope the appointment of the Minister, Deputy Katherine Zappone, will allow us to make advances in the areas of child care and youth affairs. Priority and respect need to be given to the voices of young people and children. Their opinions must be valued and carry weight.

I wholeheartedly welcome the Adoption (Amendment) Bill 2016, which puts the best interests of the child at the front and the centre. I hope the progressive nature of this Bill, which eradicates many of the barriers regarding the adoption of children at present, sets a precedent for future legislation that will be introduced by the Minister. Given that the referendum to enshrine children's rights in the Constitution was held in 2012, it is clear that this Bill is not before its time.

However, I acknowledge this was through no fault of the Minister but rather that of her predecessors. I also commend the Minister on seizing the first opportunity to bring this legislation before the House. As my colleagues said, we will not be opposing the Bill or its overarching aims but we will bring forward some minor amendments on Committee Stage in an attempt to further strengthen it.

I want to refer to section 6 in particular and I welcome the introduction of such a measure. It is good that the opinions of non-guardians will be taken into account and that provides safeguards that the best interests of the child shall be met. Many children have an array of role models and guidance from those who are non-guardians of the child. This may be in the form of a grandmother, an uncle or a close family friend. Many of these non-guardians may have played a huge role to play in the child's life from a very early age, particularly where the birth parents may have found themselves in very challenging situations that limited their ability to bond and possibly care for the child on a full-time basis. The views of those non-guardians are therefore invaluable as a result and they offer an invaluable insight as to what may be in the best interests of the child in the longer term, an opinion which, in the past, has unfortunately gone unheard and was overlooked.

Adoption can be a very positive and welcome development for a child but it can also be very difficult for a family, particularly perhaps a grandmother who sees her son or daughter struggling with her grandchild and whose views may not have been taken into consideration in the past. If grandparents were not in a position to care full-time for their child but had strong views and played a positive role in that child's life, it is good that they will get an opportunity to be heard and have their views expressed, not only from their point of view because they have to come to terms with the adoption process, but from the point of view of promoting the child's positive mental health. That measure is particularly welcome.

I also welcome the removal of some of the red tape that has been in place for far too long. I refer to the provisions made in the Bill that allow for a step-parent to adopt a child without having to jump through multiple hoops in what was a long and arduous process. Although not the legal birth parent, many people who find themselves in this situation have fulfilled this role with the utmost diligence for many years of the respective child's life. They have picked up the role of mam or dad in an admirable way and I am glad that these step-parents will no longer be treated as second-class or sub-standard parents in future by way of lengthy application processes.

Furthermore, and in keeping with the theme of cutting the red tape, the extension of the adoption age from the age of seven to 18 and the removal of criteria that only allowed for adoption in exceptional circumstance are to be praised. This allows more children to be granted parents in the form of a legal title. This can only be a positive move as such cases will provide not only stability but a sense of fulfilled identity and the dispelling of any ambiguity that may have arisen before such time that their so-called foster parents were made parents by definition. We have heard much debate on promoting children's positive mental health in recent years and it is important that children have that sense of identity.

A welcome provision is the revised criteria where an application to adopt a child is made in respect of a child who is in the custody of and who has had a home with the applicants for a period of at least 18 months, and where that child's parents have failed in their parental duty towards that child for a continuous period of not less than 36 months. In such circumstances the High Court may dispense with parental consent and authorise the Adoption Authority to make an adoption order in respect of that child. The implementation of this measure could potentially result in a much larger number of transitions from foster care placements to a child being fully adopted. This would then free up social workers and guardian ad litemswhose caseloads are at a substantial number above the recommended number of cases that would be seen as beneficial to good practice. This is a welcome unintended consequence, particularly with the current deficiencies in the staffing of social workers and the under-resourcing of Tusla. We need to ensure that social workers and people working in Tusla are properly resourced and supported and this part of the Act is a welcome development for them.

With respect to the 2012 referendum on the rights of the child being of paramount importance, this Bill is in line with the constitutional amendment that was rightly voted for by the people. The voice of children has gone unheard for far too long. It was always a quiet voice in the background. We remember the old phrase that children should be seen and not heard. Unfortunately, we have had that culture in Irish society for far too long, a culture which previous generations grew up with and to which they became accustomed. This section of the Bill is the most progressive part of it, and that is the reason I am very happy to support it. If we reflect on the history of children in care in this State and the way they were treated, not too many years ago many children were sent to institutional care homes by court order of the State. Now, under this legislation at least their voices will be heard and their opinions will be taken on board.

This legislation definitely addresses that culture and knocks it on the head. It has given a right to a child that should have been there long before now and one which we all would take for granted as adults. With due consideration to the age and maturity of a child, a child knows what he or she wants. As a mother, I think children are very good at letting you know what they want. Similarly, and once again with due consideration, many children in this State are in a position to articulate who they would like to call their parents. It will always be the parents that show most love and compassion to that child, and that is why the child would be drawn to them. I understand that a certain amount of this was down to the legislation requiring the child to be under seven years of age, an age that one would have assumed a child may not have the cognitive ability to indicate what he or she feels is best for himself or herself, but this was never the reality, and this legislation goes a long way in attempting to rectify both the age limit of the child, and the say he or she has in the process.

I welcome this Bill and I am happy to support it but we will bring forward some amendments on Committee Stage. I echo the concerns raised by my colleague about resources and ensuring adequate resources are provided, and that this legislative measure will not be one that merely sounds good and that we have on paper but does not work in practice or that we are not able to implement. That is an important point to raise, but overall we welcome this Bill.

See this speech in context