Results 3,321-3,340 of 7,643 for speaker:Rónán Mullen

Seanad: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Committee Stage (Resumed) (27 Mar 2015)

Rónán Mullen: I am referring to the adoption laws as they stand. The second tier provides that, in the particular circumstances, a single person not related to the child may apply to adopt. This is at the level of determining eligibility. The question of the child's best interests, which many people discuss but which some overuse or occasionally misuse, arises in the context of an initial determination...

Seanad: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Committee Stage (Resumed) (27 Mar 2015)

Rónán Mullen: My apologies. The context is the voice of the child being heard in proceedings. Much is made of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. The Senator took some of us, perhaps without naming us, to task for misquoting or misinterpreting the convention. It is she who is misinterpreting the convention, in particular, the travaux préparatoire.

Seanad: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Committee Stage (Resumed) (27 Mar 2015)

Rónán Mullen: I studied French for a long time. Article 7 of the convention states children have the right, where possible, to be raised by their parents. The roles playing by a mother and a father are gender specific and important. Their complementary but different nature is vital to the optimum development of the child. Having regard to the disagreement on what constitutes "parents" under the...

Seanad: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Committee Stage (Resumed) (27 Mar 2015)

Rónán Mullen: They are not absent. I thought of the horse "Standing sixteen, one or two. With eyes wild and green". That was not Senator Jillian van Turnhout but the high horse.

Seanad: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Committee Stage (Resumed) (27 Mar 2015)

Rónán Mullen: For example, the references in Article 18 of the UN convention are critical and central to the issue because we are discussing whether there is a legitimate basis to say preference can be given to a father and a mother when these decisions are being made. The article refers to parents and provides that state parties should take all appropriate measures to ensure the children of working...

Seanad: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Committee Stage (Resumed) (27 Mar 2015)

Rónán Mullen: The human rights committee in general comment 17 of the 35th session of the committee in 1989 stated in respect of the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights that "No child should be separated from his or her mother". We are talking about scenarios in the future involving potential father-father arrangements. Parents, evidently, encompass in that scenario at least a mother....

Seanad: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Committee Stage (Resumed) (27 Mar 2015)

Rónán Mullen: There is further support in international law for the contention that a child should have a mother and a father who are married and in a stable relationship.

Seanad: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Committee Stage (Resumed) (27 Mar 2015)

Rónán Mullen: I am explaining why international law-----

Seanad: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Committee Stage (Resumed) (27 Mar 2015)

Rónán Mullen: The Hague Convention in dealing with inter-country adoption provides only for adoption by married couples. It appears to view married couples as the gold standard. The Bill allows cohabiting persons to use donor-assisted human reproduction methods and creates no distinctions in the context of adoption. If it is deemed appropriate in cases of inter-country adoption only for two parents to...

Seanad: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Committee Stage (Resumed) (27 Mar 2015)

Rónán Mullen: We both have.

Seanad: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Committee Stage (Resumed) (27 Mar 2015)

Rónán Mullen: I refer to proceedings at the health committee where are essential to this issue. Senator Jillian van Turnhout asked Dr. Shannon whether he had been misunderstood when he said marriage was the gold standard for families. In his response he said he had been misunderstood and that he had been talking about marriage in the context of all citizens having access to it. However, it is clear,...

Seanad: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Committee Stage (Resumed) (27 Mar 2015)

Rónán Mullen: I understand that. I directly clarified with Dr. Shannon a quotation from the Child Trends brief which refers to the two biological parents in a low-conflict marriage providing the best environment. The claim has been made that that is not applicable to any consideration of a same-sex couple in marriage or a heterosexual couple in marriage. It seems strange to ask us to believe that...

Seanad: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Committee Stage (Resumed) (27 Mar 2015)

Rónán Mullen: No.

Seanad: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Report and Final Stages (30 Mar 2015)

Rónán Mullen: On a point of order, I received a letter in regard to the ruling out of order of certain amendments-----

Seanad: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Report and Final Stages (30 Mar 2015)

Rónán Mullen: ----- and no reasons were given.

Seanad: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Report and Final Stages (30 Mar 2015)

Rónán Mullen: I move amendment No. 5: In page 13, to delete lines 6 to 8 and substitute the following:“(2) A child born as a result of a DAHR procedure shall have two parents.”.It is clear to me that at the end of this process the Government will not have accepted a single reasoned amendment to blunt the radical agenda behind the legislation. This goes to show that it has no interest in...

Seanad: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Report and Final Stages (30 Mar 2015)

Rónán Mullen: It is not his real name. If the Senator had said Reg Dwight, it would be a problem.

Seanad: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Report and Final Stages (30 Mar 2015)

Rónán Mullen: The Minister seems to be of the view that if one states often enough and at length that something is child centred, then this will somehow make it so. I have been involved in debates on one other issue in this House in respect of which I was on the same side of the argument as people who support the Bill before us. I refer to the debates in respect of the legislation relating to human...

Seanad: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Report and Final Stages (30 Mar 2015)

Rónán Mullen: One hears the same kind of argument in respect of the issue to which I refer, namely, that if we regulate the position, make everything legal and create an industry, this will somehow make it woman centred. We are starting to win the argument to the effect that it is not woman centred. When one regulates something, very often what one is doing is endorsing it and creating a demand in...

Seanad: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Report and Final Stages (30 Mar 2015)

Rónán Mullen: What the Minister is failing to do is to acknowledge any of the best research which goes to show that there is a particular social benefit associated with children being brought up in marriage. I am in no way being judgmental in respect of other people in this regard. On many occasions I have referred to the heroism of long parents, in particular. We also acknowledge, however, that many...