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

Alan Shatter: The only issue is that the legislation does not use the words "exceptional circumstances". It uses the term "well-being". I am very conscious of, and I want to come back to this, the desirability where possible of facilitating individuals born through assisted reproduction or through adoption to trace origins, but one has to have a robust and coherent procedure and there has to be a...

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

Alan Shatter: I do not wish to prolong this unnecessarily, but if there is a range of factors to be considered, they should be detailed in the legislation. If the decision is based on "well-being", there is a need to clarify what "sufficient reasons" means or can the Minister simply say that, based on his or her perception of the well-being of the donor or the well-being of the child, he or she will or...

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

Alan Shatter: A Minister cannot secretly communicate to a court the things he or she has relied on to make a decision. If an appeal is going to be filed in the Circuit Court there has to be some ground for it. One objects to the original decision for specified reasons. If one does not know the reasoning behind a decision one cannot state the grounds of an appeal. It does not make sense.

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

Alan Shatter: Chairman, are we breaking for lunch?

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

Alan Shatter: I wish to give the Chairman notice that I intend to raise a range of issues in respect of the section.

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

Alan Shatter: I want to raise some matters. This seems to be the first section dealing with the Guardianship of Infants Act 1964 in the Bill and it seems to also be partially a definitions section. I want to just repeat something that I said in the Dáil on Second Stage. I believe it is good legislative practice that we try to keep what is a fairly complex area as legislatively clear as possible. I...

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

Alan Shatter: This is a definitional issue around what the concept of guardianship means.

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

Alan Shatter: I am quite happy to discuss it under section 41.

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

Alan Shatter: With due respect, to say that makes no sense whatsoever. I am sorry to phrase it that way. If the Guardianship of Infants Act 1964 remained exactly as it was with no amendments, there would still be a need for us to finally have a definition of these concepts. They are defined worldwide in legislation dealing with the custody, care and upbringing of children. In my view, the entire Act...

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

Alan Shatter: If I may give a one-line response to that, the references that were made to what comprises the best interests of the child were substantially taken from legislation in Australia and Canada, where it works particularly well and where the legislation is very up-to-date. In both of those jurisdictions, as in England, these concepts of access and custody are defined and are complementary to each...

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

Alan Shatter: This is a good and important section. I want to return to the issue of guardianship as well. It is important that we have an extended description of the obligations - perhaps "responsibilities" is a better word - and rights of guardians. I will not detain the committee by reciting what was in head 36 of the draft Bill that this committee considered last year. That particular provision...

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

Alan Shatter: I would like to give a brief response. The very content of the section referenced by the Minister is causing me the greatest puzzlement because some of it reflects the provisions I mentioned. It is extraordinarily perverse that we are spelling out the rights and obligations of third parties who are named as guardians by the courts without defining or spelling out in detail what being a...

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

Alan Shatter: There are provisions in this section which are important and very welcome. They prescribe how to deal with difficulties that arise when a parent fails to comply with a custody or access order and, effectively, this legislation will deal with the issue of access. There is provision for a parent who has financially lost out. For example, attending or arranging to meet a child for access...

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

Alan Shatter: I agree with everything the Minister has just said about the need to provide the back-up services and to provide a more sophisticated court welfare service, which is practically non-existent in the context of the family law area at the moment. The whole point of this is to ensure that where people are in contempt of court, imprisonment is not the only remedy available to the court. I am...

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

Alan Shatter: I am not suggesting that. I certainly do not think that criminal law should be introduced into the family law area. I am concerned about the circumstance where, whether it is the mother or the father, one of them is misbehaving and creating an enormous difficulty with regard to access issues. On occasions fathers create enormous difficulties for custodial mothers by not complying with...

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

Alan Shatter: Sections 85 and 86 have an interconnectivity. Can the Minister explain how she sees the workings of those sections?

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

Alan Shatter: I want to raise some serious issues about this action. I will reference it as (2A) in section 86(b), though it is cross-referenced as section 42(b)(2A). Under this provision the Circuit Court or the High Court can make a lump sum order that is unlimited in amount. It can be an order made instead of, or in addition to, a periodical payment order. How will this work in practice and is it...

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

Alan Shatter: That leads on to another issue which is a problem. I would have mentioned I was involved in court proceedings some years ago. This is a declaration of interest that I have referenced on several occasions. The McE case involved an unmarried mother left high and dry by an extremely wealthy father with whom she had been residing. The Circuit Court made an order for €400,000 for the...

Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Second Stage (Resumed) (25 Feb 2015)

Alan Shatter: The legislation in January last gave specific definitions to the concepts of access, custody and guardianship. Those definitions reflected global best practice. I do not understand why they are not in this particular Bill. The definition of best interests of child and what we should have regard to directly reflects what was in the January legislation. I can only assume it is not in it...

Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Second Stage (Resumed) (25 Feb 2015)

Alan Shatter: I welcome the fact that this Bill is in this House and that it is being progressed through the Chamber. It is to be hoped that it will be enacted as soon as is possible. I accept and endorse what other Deputies have said, which is that it is important that the legislation is not enacted with undue haste. I am, of course, very familiar with the provisions of the Bill. It was some...

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