Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is up to the Leas-Cheann Comhairle to rule me out of order, if she wishes, but I vehemently hold the views I have. This is because I have seen evidence which raises serious questions concerning the way in which women who are mothers of young children are being deprived of their rights under the Constitution. There is no other place to raise this question. I was challenged, in fact, by a solicitor acting for the other side in a case to disclose all my papers and to hand them over to him so he could use them as part of his case, including phone messages, etc. I told him that I was sorry but it was none of his business and I had the right to hold my messages and records confidentially in just the same way as he did. I then said, however, that if he wished to discuss this matter in court and waive the in camerarule I would be more than happy to accommodate him. This offer still stands.

The other thing I wish to point out is that there are serious cases where the rights of children have been overlooked, for want of a better description. Tusla has been asked to get involved but that agency cannot do so because it comes under the remit of the Department of Justice and the courts. It cannot, therefore, get involved in these cases. There are cases where serious allegations of child abuse have been made, some of which have been investigated by a member or members of An Garda Síochána. These have been frustrated and have run into the ground at a later stage. There remains, therefore, a serious question in this regard which needs to be examined urgently. The Minister has already agreed to carry out an investigation into the happenings in the family law courts and that the resulting report will be available by the end of the year. I do not think we have the time for this process. Time is running out fast. The nature and scale of the allegations brought to my attention are such that they have urged me to hurry and be more insistent in trying to achieve what women think should be their rights. I said "think should be their rights", for obvious reasons, but these are women's rights and they have an entitlement to their full rights without restriction. Nobody has the right to say to a mother of children that her rights are limited and will be subject to the views of the other side. There is an urgent need here for change and it should come sooner rather than later.

In support of this position, incidentally, I mention that a Justice of the Supreme Court in recent days has referred to the use of "expert witnesses", who take on celebrity status in some cases and become stronger than the courts based on them coming into court and that is the decision that prevails afterwards. Nobody questions it and this should not be the case. The courts themselves have the right to rely on witnesses, to listen to them or to dismiss them as irrelevant, if that is necessary. Some judges, thankfully, do that. At this stage, however, we must recognise the extent of the problem which exists and try to accommodate the women and children in this situation. Let us not forget that some women have been separated forcefully from their children for up to two or three years and some continue to be so. There is no agreed time limit within which they can be reunited with their children.

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