Results 9,561-9,580 of 20,459 for speaker:Frances Fitzgerald

Select Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Committee Stage (5 Mar 2015)

Frances Fitzgerald: I will examine it and see whether a point on the circumstances changing needs to be included. If my advice is it is already understood from the drafting, I will inform the Deputy. I will certainly examine it.

Select Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Committee Stage (5 Mar 2015)

Frances Fitzgerald: The main point on this provision is it is seen as applying in very exceptional cases. The strong presumption which clearly exists throughout the Bill is in favour of release. I have been advised, in the context of establishing a register such as this, one should allow for exceptional cases and that this should be provided for legally. My legal advice is it can be done in the way I have...

Select Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Committee Stage (5 Mar 2015)

Frances Fitzgerald: Let us revert to what the legislation states. Subsection (3) reads:Where a relevant donor to whom subsection (2) applies makes representations to the Minister in accordance with that subsection, the Minister shall consider those representations and--(a) if satisfied that sufficient reasons exist to withhold the information concerned from the donor-conceived child, shall refuse the request...

Select Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Committee Stage (5 Mar 2015)

Frances Fitzgerald: The strong legal advice I have is that when setting up a register like this, one needs to make this exemption based on the type of threshold that I outlined. In light of other provisions in the Bill, we should remember that the donor has consented to the giving up of parentage and the pathway to parentage for the child. The donor has put himself or herself in that situation. One must take...

Select Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Committee Stage (5 Mar 2015)

Frances Fitzgerald: No, that is not the intention.

Select Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Committee Stage (5 Mar 2015)

Frances Fitzgerald: It is not.

Select Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Committee Stage (5 Mar 2015)

Frances Fitzgerald: Yes. They have to apply to the court for the information.

Select Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Committee Stage (5 Mar 2015)

Frances Fitzgerald: I will go back to what section 33(2)(b) states:[T]he Minister shall, 12 weeks from the date on which the notice is sent, release to the donor-conceived child the information requested, unless the relevant donor makes representations to the Minister setting out why the safety or well-being of the relevant donor or the donor-conceived child, or both, requires that the information not be...

Select Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Committee Stage (5 Mar 2015)

Frances Fitzgerald: No. The information cannot be released under FOI. The Minister would obviously be obliged to give the information to the courts.

Select Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Committee Stage (5 Mar 2015)

Frances Fitzgerald: I intend to bring an amendment to this section on Report Stage to require the Minister for Health to inform a donor who has requested identifying information in relation to a donor-conceived child from the register of his refusal to release that information.

Select Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Committee Stage (5 Mar 2015)

Frances Fitzgerald: I intend to bring an amendment to this section on Report Stage to replace the term "donor-conceived sibling" with an alternative term which does not connote a legal relationship between the two donor-conceived children. While they will be conceived from gametes donated by the same donor, they will not legally be siblings.

Select Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Committee Stage (5 Mar 2015)

Frances Fitzgerald: I intend to bring an amendment to this section on Report Stage to create a new section after this section which would deal with the jurisdiction of the District and Circuit Court for the purposes of sections 19, 20, 29, 30 and 33. I wish to say a few things about Part 3. I mentioned that some statistics were collected by the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology. It collates...

Select Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Committee Stage (5 Mar 2015)

Frances Fitzgerald: Of course.

Select Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Committee Stage (5 Mar 2015)

Frances Fitzgerald: I move amendment No. 34:In page 35, line 14, to delete "(inserted by the Act of 1987)".

Select Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Committee Stage (5 Mar 2015)

Frances Fitzgerald: I move amendment No. 35:"In page 36, line 9, after “child;”,” to insert “and”."

Select Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Committee Stage (5 Mar 2015)

Frances Fitzgerald: Let me begin by saying what the Bill does for unmarried fathers. As the committee is well aware, there is at present no provision in law for automatic guardianship for non-marital fathers. The legislation will introduce such a provision for some non-marital fathers. Under it, an unmarried father will automatically become the guardian of a child if he lives with the child's mother for at...

Select Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Committee Stage (5 Mar 2015)

Frances Fitzgerald: Before the Deputy leaves I would make the comment that I accept the spirit of the amendment. I will introduce amendments on Report Stage on some of the key points he makes in the amendment.

Select Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Committee Stage (5 Mar 2015)

Frances Fitzgerald: Deputy Mac Lochlainn wanted to make a point about this but just to say that the effect of the deletion would be to maintain the status quo, that the only fathers who are guardians are the child's marital father or a father who makes a statutory declaration with the child's mother appointing him as guardian, or a father who obtains a court order appointing him as guardian under section 6A of...

Select Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Committee Stage (5 Mar 2015)

Frances Fitzgerald: As I said at the outset, there was a good deal of discussion on this during the course of the Second Stage debate in the Dáil. Subject to some particular comments I want to make, I can accept the spirit of the amendment. These comments are, first, that the information on guardianship proposed in the draft subsection (5)(c) is specific in regard to a court application under the...

Select Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Committee Stage (5 Mar 2015)

Frances Fitzgerald: What was striking about the Second Stage debate was that people spoke about automatic guardianship involving the father, and almost everybody who talked about it also spoke about exceptional circumstances in which a mother could find herself with respect to the father's role. For example, people mentioned cases of domestic violence and many called for exceptions to be made if the pregnancy...