Lisa Chambers (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

First, I congratulate the Minister, Deputy Katherine Zappone, on her appointment and wish her well in this portfolio. She has many years of experience dealing with it in her own work and I have no doubt that she will bring her experience to bear in her work in this term.

I welcome the content, the intent and consequence of the Bill. It is progressive and ambitious legislation which pushes the boundaries of our very traditional society. It met with quite a lot of resistance, particularly coming up to the referendum and even since. Adoption, particularly in the past, has left many families reeling because of what they have been through. It has scarred individuals and some might see it as a black mark on our society because of the way we have handled it to date. There has been a failure on the part of the State to adequately take into account the views of the child and put him or her at the centre of any adoption, as should always be the case.

The Bill recognises the changing nature of Irish society and family life. It shows respect for the varying family arrangements that are now common throughout Ireland and recognises that not every family is headed up by a heterosexual couple. It moves us towards a more modern adoption service, one which focuses, first and foremost, on the child. This is exceptionally positive and long overdue.

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child which Ireland ratified in 1992 acknowledges the family as the fundamental unit of society. It stresses the role of parents as primary care givers with responsibility for the upbringing of their children and obliges governments to support them in fulfilling their roles. While there is an obligation on the State to support parents in fulfilling their role while parenting their child or children, there is also a responsibility on parents to look after their children, rear them properly and look after their well-being. It is a two-way street and the obligation does not rest solely on the State. It is a very privileged position to be a parent and with that privilege comes great responsibility.

The main principles of the convention are that the best interests of the child must be the primary consideration in all actions concerning him or her and that the child's views must be considered in all matters affecting him or her. This can bring difficulties in how we ascertain the child's views, particularly where there may be communication difficulties and taking into account the age of the child and his or her maturity. Furthermore, every child is unique and special. That challenges us to vindicate the rights of the child, but these are challenges we must meet and face head on.

Contrary to the views of certain groups, this legislation is not an attack on families. It continues to recognise the role of the family, but it puts before all else the well-being of the child and ensures children are given an opportunity to be heard and listened to in matters affecting them. There are conflicting rights and a balance needs to be struck. There are the rights of parents and the family unit and these rights are enshrined in the Constitution, but there are also the rights of the child. I have experience of working in the family courts and there is often a very difficult balance to be struck. This places a lot of responsibility on the shoulders of judges and members of the legal profession, guardians ad litem, parents and the counsel involved in these cases to ensure the family unit is not unnecessarily upset while we vindicate the rights of the child and ensure he or she is heard.

There are dissenting views on this legislation and it is important to recognise the concerns of those who do not support it. However, I ask them to recognise the many years of research on this issue that has led us to this point, as well as the legislative changes that have taken place before this, namely, in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Thirty-first Amendment of the Constitution Act 2012 which was passed following the children's rights referendum in November 2012 and allowed for the insertion of a new Article 42A into the Constitution. This article provides for the rights and protection of all children but specifically the rights and protection of children at risk who are in need of child protection services and-or involved in adoption proceedings. The intention of the amendment was to deal with children in need in difficult situations and at risk. It is difficult to balance the very important role the family unit plays in Irish society with a recognition of the many hundreds and thousands of children at risk who are in need of protection services and may at some point need adoption services. Without this legislation, the adoption services are not fit for purpose.

It is important to note also that Barnardos and the Children's Rights Alliance have welcomed the Bill. These organisations are at the forefront of child protection and deal on a daily basis with children and families in difficult situations. It is important that they are on board with this legislaiton. They were involved in the consultation process and welcome the contents of the Bill. Barnardos described it as another crucial piece of legislation in prioritising children. That is the key and goes to the very heart of why we are making these legislative changes; we are putting children's needs at the heart of adoption. That must always be our priority.

The provisions of the Bill broaden eligibility for adoption to all children. For example, children who have been reared by foster parents by reason of the failure of their own parents to look after them will be eligible for adoption in more circumstances than at present and the Bill will allow for the voluntary placement for adoption of any child, including a child whose parents are married. This is probably the key part of the legislation because many children are caught up in the protection services or living in foster care for a long time but whose parents, while married, may never be in a position to take them back into their care. There is now the possibility for a child to continue with the family who are fostering him or her and to have a fresh start in life. Children were left in limbo to the point where they were in long-term foster care and, no matter how unlikely it was that they would ever return to their biological parents, they could never be considered for adoption, even where it was in their best interests. This clearly was an anomaly in our law and did not reflect the best interests of the child or allow common sense to prevail.

I welcome the section of the Bill which deals with civil partners and cohabitees. It is very positive and reflects the diverse nature of the country and the different types of family who can provide very good care for children. It reflects the different living arrangements, wherein parents may or may not be married, heterosexual or straight, cohabiting or otherwise. Whatever the scenario, that should not be the basis on which a person is judged fit to take care of a child.

This allows far more scope for these couples to come forward whatever their circumstances when they believe they can offer a good home to a child.

The new Bill will allow civil partners and cohabitees the opportunity to adopt, should they so wish, giving legislative effect to the Children and Family Relationships Act. This is an extremely positive step forward in our laws in this area, recognising the diverse nature of family life in Ireland and the many good couples who can provide a good home for a child.

One of the key areas that still needs to be addressed is improving the efficiency and cost of the adoption process. Any person who has been through the process of adopting a child will say it quite arduous, draining, emotionally stressful and costly. These are areas in which we can make changes to make it easier to come through the process. Obviously, there will be proper checks and balances and proper scrutiny of those who come forward. However, it should not be cumbersome and costly for couples to come through the process.

We must ensure there is proper guidance in assessing parental failure and what exactly this means. In the assessment of any such term - I am going on my own experience - my interpretation of parental failure could be very different from that of the person sitting beside me. That is the difficulty in the interpretation of such a term. It can be quite objective. As it is an objective interpretation, guidance is required to provide a workable definition of parental failure and on how it might work in practice. I appreciate that this may require review at a later stage when we see how it operates in practice, but to arrive at a situation where one can say for definite that there is parental failure in a particular case, the threshold should not be so high as to preclude anybody from ever reaching it. That is an important factor. I understand the concerns raised by individuals and groups that one could arbitrarily decide that there is parental failure and remove a child, whereas another individual might say the threshold had not been reached. Clarity in that regard is crucial for the operation of the legislation.

The guardianad litemsystem needs to be reformed. My experience of it is that it can be unnecessarily costly for those involved. We can look at making it more efficient and still maintain a good service and ensure a child is properly represented. Obviously, the guardianad litemis the representative of the child in a court scenario, but it is important that taxpayers' money is not wasted. The system must be properly run and streamlined to make it better.

We must ensure proper guidelines are in place for how we go about gaining the child's views on a particular issue. This is something I have seen, although not quite in this sensitive scenario, but, for example, if I was to work on a case where there might have been an injury to a child and he or she was asked to come forward to describe to the judge that injury or its effect on him or her, it could be very stressful for him or her and often there is a requirement to go into the judge's chambers in order that the judge can have a confidential conversation with the child. There is a need for guidance in that regard because not every child will have the confidence to articulate his or her views in a way that will assist the judge to the level at which he or she needs to be assisted. We need to work on how we can gather the views of a child who may also have communication difficulties. He or she may have the mental capacity to form his or her own views, but he or she may not have the capacity to articulate these views in the necessary manner. This will be a difficult issue for us to get to grips with to form the guidelines that are necessary, but it is one on which we need to focus. It will come to bear quite soon in certain cases and the guidelines required will be very important.

In this legislation, all of the guidelines and the Dáil debates it is important not to lose sight of the fact that at the centre of this issue are real children and real families who are going through the system. It is easy to comment as an observer, as somebody who is not going through the process and experiencing the stress involved, but at the heart of everything we do we should always remember that there are real people involved.

The legislation is sensible. It is much needed and common sense seems to have prevailed. I, therefore, welcome it. It is both progressive and ambitious. It was difficult at times to progress it, but I am delighted that so many stakeholders are on board with it. Clearly, a very good consultation process was entered into. In performing her duties in this role I ask the Minister to take on board a couple of the issues I have outlined, on which I would like to see further work done. I assure her of my full support and will be happy to give any assistance I can in that regard. I welcome the Bill. I am delighted to have been given the opportunity to speak to it as it is important legislation. In years to come we will look back at this point and see that we made a very good change in our adoption legislation, a change that will positively affect children.

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