Dan Boyle (Green Party)

There is a line in the famous work by the Lebanese poet Khalil Gibran who wrote The Prophet which suggests our children are not our children but a part of life's longing for itself. The nature of this debate is about the role of children in modern Irish society; not that they are owned or are chattel or that they are part of a particular unit or the State, but that collectively we have a responsibility to ensure their physical, emotional and education needs are met and that they are provided with whatever support they require to become fully functioning adults in society. Modern social history has tended to put this aside where children tended to be seen but not heard. We have evolved to the current state of affairs where an Oireachtas committee with representatives from almost every political party has come to the conclusions before us today which will eventually be put before the people and which provide us with a definition of the role of the child in modern Ireland.

Other Senators are correct to state we must treat this debate with the utmost seriousness. We must also acknowledge that as a state we have very much failed in this, the reasons for which are that we invested too much in concepts taken for granted as the natural home for the upbringing of children but from which many children were taken for very spurious and social policy reasons that we cannot defend in this century or the modern era. While the family is the preferred model for the upbringing of children, it is not always the ideal. We must legislate constitutionally and in statute to take account of those circumstances where the well-being of the child cannot be met through the conventional structures in which we hope such needs are met. In the past the problem was not caused by a failure to meet these needs; it was a failure of the children, through no fault of their own, to fit into that conventional structure. Children were removed from unmarried or single parents or where parents did not conform to an overriding religious ethos. Because of this we created an institutional culture which had a side-effect of institutional abuse, with which society is still dealing. That is why this is important and why we need to have a reasoned and considered debate. I am glad the committee has dealt with this in a detailed and considered way and in a way which invites the wider discussion we need to have as a society.

We must also take into account that, surprisingly enough, Bunreacht na hÉireann is one of the oldest written constitutions in Europe. Our nearest neighbour does not have a written constitution and the constitutions of most European countries were formed in the aftermath of the Second World War. Bunreacht na hÉireann defined its vision of Ireland in 1937 and needs to be considered in a modern context.

The committee has done valuable work in terms of deciding how that should apply when defining the status and rights of the child.

We also have to comply with our international obligations and while the committee is only today presenting its report for our consideration, we have singularly failed as a State to live up to the original UN Convention on the Rights of the Child which we signed up to 20 years ago. We cannot take pride in the fact that it has taken us two decades to arrive at our current position. However, as we say in all good political and economic debates, we are where we are. We have to address this issue because it can no longer be put on the long finger.

The commitment shown by the committee, the Minister of State and the original and revised programmes for Government demonstrate this issue is being treated with the utmost seriousness. The degree of consensus reached among politicians and political parties will help the national debate. For these reasons I welcome the report of the committee and look forward to the wider debate that will take place. We are debating the ability of the State to recognise children as evolving adults who need to be listened to and protected. Their voice cannot be put aside nor their rights diminished. If we want to live in a modern Ireland which offers protections equal to those of other progressive societies, we need to make this amendment to our Constitution.