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

I very much appreciate the Minister of State coming into the House. I know she has taken an interest in that particular subject as well, and rightly so. I thank her for the tone of the reply. My only comment is in support in thanking the Minister of State and the Minister for Justice for bringing the matter this far. The next important item is to bring it the rest of the way in the shortest time possible, because women who are mothers, and their children, are suffering in the meantime. This is not one case, a dozen cases or two dozen cases; it is many. It has caught the attention of the United Nations, and rightly so, and something will have to be done about it. The problem, as I said originally, is that it would appear to me that there is some source that I cannot identify, and the purposes of which I cannot identify, whereby a ring of steel is surrounding the mystery of what happens, and why the woman automatically should expect to lose in court. Everybody is entitled to go to court at any time. Women are going to court and expecting to lose because of their gender or because they have children, because of the advice somebody has given to the court. A Supreme Court judge recently commented on it in a critical way, and more of that will follow. I thank the Minister of State for informing the House to the effect that she did today, and I thank the Minister for Justice for moving forward, knowing that there is a strong opposition to doing what should be done.

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