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

I warmly welcome this Bill and thank the Minister for her determination in bringing it this far. The Ceann Comhairle can take a lot of credit for allowing the discussion that brought about this situation to take place. Legislators cannot legislate, even for the courts, unless they can discuss the legislation in the Legislature. I therefore thank the Ceann Comhairle for allowing that debate to take place in the House to highlight the needs. It is hoped the Bill will be a landmark Bill that addresses issues of unfairness where parents - mostly mothers but some fathers as well - find themselves and their children severely disadvantaged as a result of the system that was operating heretofore. It is reassuring to know that we have come this far and that a review of the in camera rule is also now taking place. That will be very important because Tusla and other agencies have not been able to get involved in certain matters on the basis of the in camera rule. Any family issue arising in court that is covered by the in camera rule cannot be discussed by Tusla in a public arena. Tusla cannot intervene and has often been wrongly blamed for a failure to exert itself. I give all credit to everybody who made it happen. It will be a great leap forward for fairness in the family law courts. While it might not solve everything, at least it will bring society and the House to a point at which we can see fairness and fair play being administered all around. We hope that we will not see situations where children are removed from their parents in an aggressive way in order to comply with rules created as a result of section 32 or section 47. In many cases, such decisions were not allowed to be challenged. The legislation the Minister has produced, for which she is to be congratulated, will go an awful long way - I hope it will go the entire way - towards protecting parents and children while, at the same time, ensuring that the law is enforced.

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