Ivana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

In terms of Senator Byrne?s request to have the Minister of State, Deputy Alex White, come to the House, I am sure the Leader will deal with it. I hope we will see the Minister of State in the House. We should all welcome him and his appointment, in particular as he has a distinguished record in this House as leader of the Labour Party group in the previous Seanad term prior to February 2011.

I wish to raise two matters; first, on the children?s referendum Bill, I am delighted to see that we will have time today for Committee and Report Stages. We had a very good Second Stage debate on the Bill. I hope we will have a broad debate after the referendum on children?s rights. There has been broad support for the wording of the referendum but there has been some critique, notably from Vincent Browne. I suggested last night in the Seanad that his reading of the Baby Ann case was wrong. I am delighted to see that in today?s The Irish Times he has accepted that his reading was wrong, that he had referred to only one judgment rather than to both judgments in the case, which clearly outlined the reluctance and regret some of the judges felt in coming to the decision to which they came and that the referendum will deal with the decision in that case and will allow clearer criteria for judges in dealing with such cases in the future.

In the context of a broader debate on children?s rights we might also examine children?s allowance. There has been much debate about that. Personally, I believe in the principle of universality. I note Fergus Finlay from Barnardos said he would favour a reduction in the overall amount and to keep the universal principle in place. It is also worth noting the powerful defence of the universal payment of child benefit made by Evelyn Mahon, again in today?s The Irish Times where she spoke of the way in which children?s allowance has been constructed to deal with varied claims of mothers. She reminds us that it was only as recently as the 1970s that mothers won the right to claim child benefit of behalf of their children. It is a payment for children. Perhaps that is the key point; it is a payment in respect of each child and it is for that reason we should defend the principle of universality. We have had debates on the principle previously and I look forward to future debates on it as well.