Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

I should have dealt with that. Senator Browne raised it earlier and I would like to address it now. The amendments are very complex and they relate to the whole question under consideration. The Ferns amendments relate to two particular recommendations in the Ferns Report about which much work has been done by my own office and that of the Attorney General. The first recommendation deals with the interagency groups that have substantial dealings with vulnerable children or have unsupervised access to children. The recommendation outlines the legal scaffolding that should be erected to give them protection from libel, freedom of information legislation, data protection legislation and all other immunities they enjoy when assessing the necessary soft information. We are working on a draft and it seemed that this would be a convenient vehicle for it, but I regret the fact that it is not yet available for Senators.

The second recommendation made by the Ferns Report was to examine if it is possible to give power to the High Court to make an injunction restraining a person from having access to children, following an application by the Health Service Executive. That also raises complex issues because it represents a civil remedy to injunct the person from dealing with children in the absence of a criminal conviction. There is some precedent for this in the resolution of matrimonial disputes and the exclusion of parties from the matrimonial home. In the context of the Bill, it is a new power to be conferred on the HSE and one that must be formulated with great care and in a way which continues the responsibilities of organisations for their own staff in regard to the care of children.