Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for her response. I pay my own tribute to her. I enjoy listening to her and it is very clear she is more than in charge of the brief, which is very reassuring. Great credit is due to her, and I hope that does not sound patronising as I have listened with great interest to what she has been saying. However, I cannot buy what I am hearing about her reasons for not accepting the amendment. In passing, it was not my intention to ask whether there are other situations in the Constitution where one has successive sub-points. I was asking whether it was clear from the jurisprudence and from judicial reasoning that a second point would have to be read entirely in the context of and subject to the test laid out in the earlier section, because that is the reassurance the Minister is seeking to offer on this point. That is separate from the mere existence of succeeding subsections.

I note what the Minister has to say about Article 41 and consider that significant. I note also what she has to say about the legislation that is proposed and, again, I consider that the care that has been given to this is testament to her prudence and that it is a balanced approach. However, as I have already said more than once today, and as I know everybody here agrees, we have to look at the changes to the Constitution not just in the context of what the Minister, in her wisdom as the relevant Minister proposing legislation at this time, would deem to be good but also in the context of our having to think prospectively for the future. That is why this is significant.

While I am not sure I should read anything into this, I note the Minister did not repeat her caution about the possible misinterpretation of my proposed amendment, which I cannot accept as being in any way legally or logically grounded. Therefore, I put it to her there is no possible mischief in what I am proposing. What I believe we are doing is introducing a very helpful clarity. From everything the Minister has said, it is entirely her intention that such provision for adoption in involuntary adoption situations should only take place in the full context of what is provided for in sub-article 2.1°. However, it is very clear there is a potential for ambiguity because in sub-article 2.1°, the test is parental failure "to such extent that the safety or welfare of any of their children is likely to be prejudicially affected".