Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

Section 37 of the Child Care Act 1991 relates to access to children in care. It provides that where a child is in the care of the Health Service Executive, either under a care order or otherwise, the executive will facilitate reasonable access to the child by the parents, any person acting in loco parentis or any person with a bona fide interest. It provides that a person who is dissatisfied with the arrangements made by the executive may apply to the court and the court may make an order on access and vary or discharge this order. The HSE can also apply to the court for an order authorising the executive to refuse a named person access to a child. These provisions are already in the 1991 legislation.

This Bill provides that any arrangement in place under section 37 at the time of the making of an order under this section will remain in place until the court orders otherwise. Having examined the precise wording in the Bill and notwithstanding the fact that it contains a provision that the new sections are without prejudice to any other provisions of the Act which assign functions to the Health Service Executive, I am prepared to consider this issue further and make explicit what is implicit in the legislation with a view to introducing an amendment on Report Stage. Any such amendment would make a specific provision for new access arrangements to be made or existing access arrangements to be altered after an order under this section has been made. In short, the Senator raises a fair point which I will address.