Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I concur with everything Deputy Collins just said. It looks, on the face it, like a very simple case of an Irish citizen stuck in Spain, because her mother is Irish, looking for travel documents to allow her, at the young age she is at, to come back to Ireland, to enjoy the company of both parents, to hopefully grow up in Ireland and to avail of a passport when that opportunity arises next May. Can the Department and the Minister exercise discretion and compassion in this instance? This is literally looking for travel documents to allow this child to return to Ireland.

Sofia is stuck in a legal limbo which is not of her making and which none of us expected when we passed the Child and Family Relationships Act. We intended, as a consequence of this Act, that children in this instance would be able to avail of an Irish passport, but bureaucratically we are going to have to wait until May. The intent and the effect of the law should be to look at cases such as this one, which are harrowing for the parents who are afraid for their child who has no passport and who basically has no rights in the country she is in because she has no identification documents. She has a birth certificate which states clearly who her parents are but does not grant her the right to travel. I hope the Minister will be able to intercede on the family's behalf.

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