Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

We discussed this issue at length on a previous occasion. I am of the view that it is for the courts to decide, based on the information provided to them by the executive on the efforts made to contact the person, whether they are satisfied that the parent or other person is missing and cannot be found. Courts are used to conducting this exercise; it is part of their experience. We, as a Legislature, should not try to fetter the courts too much in their explorations on this issue. We have supplied them with a concept, namely, "missing". It is for the courts to determine whether a person is in fact missing.

To include a requirement that a person who has not contacted an official or officer at a health board for a year or any other period should be automatically deemed to be missing is not the answer. It is far preferable to give the court power to decide whether someone is missing because it can consider the entire file and make an independent, objective judgement on the issue. This protects the person who is missing far more than the insertion of a requirement that a particular period of time should have elapsed. Were we to insert that requirement, it is unlikely any person would know about it who is not in the administration of the HSE.