Results 10,461-10,480 of 20,459 for speaker:Frances Fitzgerald

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

Frances Fitzgerald: Yes, the trigger for awareness.

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

Frances Fitzgerald: I understand. I am not in a position to accept the Senator's amendment. As I say, there were obligations. Perhaps when the adoption legislation comes in, that would be the place to have a fuller discussion on this amendment.

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

Frances Fitzgerald: The point on maintenance is well made. The situation is improving in regard to it. There are aspects in this Bill for maintenance recovery. The family law courts will better assist efficient dealing with maintenance in enforcement applications.

Seanad: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Committee Stage (26 Mar 2015)

Frances Fitzgerald: I have examined the amendment carefully, have received legal advice on it and would like to go through my reaction to it. The purpose of the amendment is to specify that a donor-conceived child is a child born as a result of a DAHR procedure carried out after the commencement of section 4. The existing provision specifies that a donor-conceived child is a child born in the State after the...

Seanad: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Committee Stage (26 Mar 2015)

Frances Fitzgerald: I thank Senators for their comments on this amendment. I will make a number of points. On Second Stage, I explained that, in this Bill, we were dealing with some of the parentage aspects in respect of AHR. There is no doubt that broader legislation on AHR and DAHR is necessary. A vast range of relevant issues require it. I have worked closely with the Department of Health to ensure that...

Seanad: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Committee Stage (26 Mar 2015)

Frances Fitzgerald: Yes.

Seanad: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Committee Stage (26 Mar 2015)

Frances Fitzgerald: With regard to the points on consanguinity and the whole area intra-familial gamete donation, there are both intragenerational and intergenerational issues and, clearly, this is very complex. Senator Walsh has also spoken on this point. My understanding from the work we have done in this regard is that it is certainly an area that will need to be spelled out in future legislation - there is...

Seanad: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Committee Stage (26 Mar 2015)

Frances Fitzgerald: I do not want Senator Mullen to misunderstand what I said. I was referring to establishing a hierarchy of family types whereby some family types would be entitled to access to the procedures, which is what the amendment does.

Seanad: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Committee Stage (26 Mar 2015)

Frances Fitzgerald: The purpose of the amendment is to ensure intending parents have counselling on the consequences of having a child through donor assisted reproduction before undertaking the procedures. In broad terms, I accept the principle that intending parents receiving fertility treatment should receive counselling. That is correct. From my discussion with clinics, I understand they regard counselling...

Seanad: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Committee Stage (26 Mar 2015)

Frances Fitzgerald: Yes.

Seanad: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Committee Stage (26 Mar 2015)

Frances Fitzgerald: All right. I note the Senator's concerns and the points that have been made.However, the area is completely unregulated at present and we are beginning to put legislation around certain aspects of AHR and DAHR. The purpose of amendment No. 5 is to raise the minimum age of a donor to 21 years. This appears to be to match the minimum age of intending parents, although we do have the opposite...

Seanad: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Committee Stage (26 Mar 2015)

Frances Fitzgerald: I wish to explain why the age of 21 was set as a minimum for intending parents. This was arrived at in consultation with the Department of Health following policy work and research it had carried out in this area. The Department of Health advised that, while it would vary a bit depending on the cause, it takes approximately three years to arrive at a diagnosis of infertility. There may be...

Seanad: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Committee Stage (26 Mar 2015)

Frances Fitzgerald: The effect of these amendments is to allow continued anonymity on the part of donors of gametes or embryos. This would run counter to the careful provisions we have made to safeguard the identity rights of a child born through donor assisted human reproduction. These provisions are aimed at securing the child's genetic identity and to ensure he or she has an opportunity to find out the...

Seanad: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Committee Stage (26 Mar 2015)

Frances Fitzgerald: It is something intrinsic to a person's sense of self. If we took Senator Crown's proposed route, we would fly in the face of the recommendations made by the joint committee after it examined the public policy aspects of this issue. We would also be ignoring emerging international best practice and the spirit of the provisions in the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child on the right to...

Seanad: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Committee Stage (26 Mar 2015)

Frances Fitzgerald: The answer to Senator Crown's question on the donor details is "No". Those details will not be sent to the registry. In response to Senator Norris, the information the clinics have varies quite significantly. Some of the donations they receive are anonymous, so the clinics do not have much information on them. What we are doing is moving to a situation where information on donations will...

Seanad: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Committee Stage (26 Mar 2015)

Frances Fitzgerald: They have some DNA information, but they do not have the full genetic information we say should be available.

Seanad: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Committee Stage (26 Mar 2015)

Frances Fitzgerald: What we are speaking about in regard to the information we would want to have available would be the name being made available to the child on becoming an adult, or earlier if the parents wanted that information to be given to the child sooner. That is a more developed concept in regard to information.

Seanad: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Committee Stage (26 Mar 2015)

Frances Fitzgerald: This amendment relates to contact details being provided on an ongoing basis. There is no clear method to enforce this and there is a risk that if we make it mandatory, a later failure of a donor to update his or her contact details could somehow affect the legal parentage of the child. In this day and age it is relatively easy to trace people, based on the level of information required....

Seanad: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Committee Stage (26 Mar 2015)

Frances Fitzgerald: Amendment No. 10 specifies that a donor who revokes consent may subsequently use his or her own gamete for an assisted reproduction procedure in relation to which he or she is an intending parent. I am happy to confirm there is no barrier in the legislation to his or her doing so the amendment is not necessary. Shall I deal with amendments Nos. 13, 14 and 16?

Seanad: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Committee Stage (26 Mar 2015)

Frances Fitzgerald: Amendments Nos. 13, 14 and 16 all refer to the use of embryos by intending parents. The principle behind these amendments is that, where an embryo has been formed for use by a couple and the couple subsequently decide not to use it as joint intending parents and if only one of those intending parents has a genetic connection to the embryo, the intending parent with the genetic connection...