Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I join other Members in congratulating the Minister, Deputy Katherine Zappone, on her appointment. I very much look forward to working with her. I expect she will be a progressive influence on the Government, which needs one. Certainly, her record and the interest she has shown in a number of issues give me hope that will be the case.

I reiterate what has been said that all of us in opposition will be co-operative in regard to the Bill and in working with the Minister generally and will not oppose the content of the Bill. However, I support what Deputy Joan Burton said on the amendments we will table, particularly on information and tracing. I hope the Minister will give serious consideration to the point Deputy Joan Burton has just made. I know from experience that it can take a long time to find the space in the Dáil calendar to bring another Bill forward where some of the issues in an area have largely been dealt with. I urge the Minister to consider seriously the amendments we intend to table. There was discussion in the committee last year in advance of some of the issues that will be raised in our amendments and that represents groundwork for consideration of these issues, as does the work of Geoffrey Shannon, Barnardos, the Adopted and Fostered Person's Association of Ireland, to which Deputy Joan Burton referred, and the Adoption Rights Alliance. Many organisations have done considerable work in the area already and there is a quite a lot of material which can be used. We also have the experience of people who have tried to trace. While there is assistance out there, it is not on a statutory basis and there is most definitely a need to address this issue. In the past, we have made slow and incremental progress in many of these areas. There are still many issues to be addressed and we should address them in the time we have available for the Bill. I welcome what is in the Bill, however.

Everyone has made the point that the basis of the Bill is in the Thirty-first Amendment of the Constitution Act 2012, which amends Article 42. I stress that the best interests of the child must be paramount in all of this. With that as the basis for everything we do with regard to children, we cannot go wrong in how we act and legislate. In particular, I welcome the proposal that married parents will be able to place children for adoption. There are many children, some of whom I know, who have been in long-term, loving fostering situations. We know it is in the best interests of those children that they should be eligible for adoption. It is important to stress that the legislation provides that both parents must consent. Certainly, I know of situations where the parents of the child know it is in the best interests of that child to be eligible for adoption rather than to continue in a long-term fostering situation. This measure is very welcome because it addresses real situations of real children right now who will have a more secure future because of this legislation. I welcome this.

It is also welcome that civil partners and cohabiting couples will become eligible. There is no reason they should not be. The other measure that has been referred to by many addresses the quite bizarre situation where a person ends up adopting his or her own child because of the requirement in the current legislation where a step-parent wishes to adopt for the natural parent to adopt the child also. That is also very welcome. It has never made sense that a person must adopt his or her own child if his or her spouse or partner is adopting the child. That measure is also very welcome.

As well as the constitutional amendment, the further basis or background to the Bill includes the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which Ireland ratified a number of years ago, and the national policy framework for children and young people 2014-2020, which is the policy basis in an Irish context. The policy area also includes the concept of a family support model which aims to ensure, in the best interests of the child, that vulnerable families get the support they need. That is why I support what was said by previous speakers in relation to the suggestion which came out last week in the proposed programme for Government that child benefit could be taken from families where children are not attending school. That is absolutely wrong and I hope the Minister can assure us that it will not be part of the action of the Government. Certainly, we need assurance on that as it would go against the concept of the family support model and the best interests of the child. I hope the Minister will not support any such measure.

I was on the committee before 2011 which dealt with the Adoption Act 2010 and the Hague Convention in particular. While that legislation was limited, it was necessary at the time. There were some very concerning issues at the time around inter-country adoption which absolutely needed to be addressed on an international basis. As a member of the committee, I supported the then Government's introduction of the legislation. It made some incremental progress in terms of protecting children in the context of international adoptions. However, it was limited legislation and there is no doubt that it is important to progress matters in the way that is happening. The fact that the last Government created a senior Minister for Children and Youth Affairs has been really important in progressing the rights of children. It is welcome that the Department continues in the current Government.

I turn in the rest of the time available to me to what still needs to be done. Previous speakers referred to the briefing yesterday at which it was indicated that there would be legislation on information and tracing rights. I do not know if a timescale was suggested but perhaps the Minister could indicate it to us. I support my colleague, Deputy Joan Burton, in suggesting that information and tracing should be dealt with in this Bill. There is no reason it should not be.

I say this because of the point that we have already made, namely, that it may take some time before one has the opportunity to introduce further legislation but also because there is a great deal of information and much work has been done on this matter already.

As Deputy Joan Burton stated, while in theory one has a right to know about one's origins under European and national law, that right is not in statute and has not been established in the way required of the House. When I entered the House in 1998, we were in the midst of trying to deal with the legacy of young children who were put in institutions. The State apologised and there was a series of amending legislative measures. I was involved in amending the Statute of Limitations. As equality spokesperson in opposition, I tabled legislation that was incorporated into Government legislation. That seems quite a long time ago now but it is not. Children were locked up with no concern for their rights. In many cases, it was about how people searched for their birth origins. It was also about how society frowned on certain issues. It was an Ireland that we are all glad to see the back of. There has been progress in many respects, including on the Magdalen laundries, residential institutions legislation and all that followed from the latter, but we have not dealt with everything yet. The children's referendum was a major and important step and we need to build on it. Deputy Robert Troy referred to a number of complex issues concerning sperm donation and I would like to address the guardian ad litemmatter, but the Bill is progress overall, for which reason I welcome it. I urge the Minister to give serious consideration to the amendments that we will table on behalf of the Labour Party.

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