Shane Cassells (Meath West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I join others in congratulating the Minister on her appointment. I have a great interest in the work of her Department, in particular relating to child care, and I look forward to working with her constructively on the resources needed by early childhood years service providers and to seeing their agenda and that of parents progressed during the lifetime of this Dáil.

I listened to the Minister's remarks on the Bill yesterday. She referred to how basic human rights issues went to the core of who she was as a person. She wore her heart on her sleeve yesterday, for which she is to be admired. I also listened to Deputy Joan Burton's remarks on this matter, in particular about the failure of the Bill to address problems with adoption information and tracing.

I wish to quote some lines:

It was great to see this year, Ireland celebrating its past with her people's search for connection to it, stronger than ever. Indeed, the month of March 2016 saw the online release of thousands of Irish Catholic Parish records for public access and genealogy websites gifting a month's free access to users. The interest in identity remains a booming business yet the significance of it can be felt very deeply within people's lives.

These lines came from a lady in London who wrote to me on behalf of her aunt who is now in her 80s and comes from Castlepollard in my constituency of Meath West. She was born at the Castlepollard mother and baby home in the 1930s and was separated from her mother, whom she never saw again, at birth. Following a lifetime of complicit silence, she asked her niece six months ago to find something out about her biological family. She made a request for information and tracing via Tusla, but it is inundated with requests and the task of processing retrospective and current cases is a major undertaking for its staff. The lady and her aunt have received minimal information to date. As the lady said, time is against them after eight decades. They need action.

With regard to the wider aspects of the Bill, it brings greater clarity to adoption legislation and removes a number of outdated legal anomalies, in particular that of adoptions by step-parents. It facilitates married parents in placing their children up for adoption on a voluntary basis where both parents consent to the making of the adoption order. I agree with the Minister's assertion that the legislation provides for significant improvements in the rights of children and that she is focused on putting the best interests of the child at the centre of any discussion regarding adoption.

In that regard, I will touch on a matter that our spokesperson, Deputy Robert Troy, raised yesterday and that can be emotive for people, namely, the provision that gives greater legislative clarity to adoption proceedings in the case of parental failure. Parental failure happens. It is an unpleasant fact, one that people often do not like to admit or discuss. Some important sections of our society do not even acknowledge that it exists. The mantra that a child is always best served by being with his or her biological parents is not accurate. I have seen scenarios in which nothing could have been further from the truth. The provision in the amended section allowing the High Court to authorise the adoption authorities to make an adoption order on behalf of applicants, for example, foster parents or relatives, if the court is satisfied that such an authorisation is in the best interests of the child, and that the child's parents have failed in their duty towards him or her, is a positive one. It provides a welcome clarity and puts the rights of the child to the fore, not the defence of parents whose main act was one of love making rather than of providing the love, care and support needed for a happy and stable childhood.

In tandem, there is a real need to consider the resources for those who provide support systems for children in care and support for children’s services generally. Having listened to the Minister’s words yesterday, I hope and have a great sense that she will champion that cause and demand and seek more resources for children.

The most substantive provision in the Bill is obviously to give legislative effect to the new article, Article 42A, on the rights of the child. That provision is to be made in law to enable the views of children who are the subject of child care, custody or adoption proceedings to be ascertained. Most important, that the court is to give them due weight is very welcome.

I commend the Bill for addressing so many legal anomalies. It is positive to see the rights of children being progressed in this Dáil.

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