Terry Leyden (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We oppose it because it is not an acceptable amendment to the Constitution. I will elaborate further on this point. I listed the various Bills that I, while a Minister of State, debated in the Seanad to show that the Seanad was productive. On 28 April 1988, I was in this Chamber when the late Nuala Fennell, a wonderful Deputy and Senator, moved amendment No. 14 to the Adoption (No. 2) Bill 1987 on Committee Stage (Resumed). It read: "In page 6, line 31, to delete "illegitimate" and substitute "a child whose parents were not married to each other or an orphan."." She went on to state:

I hope the Minister will accept this amendment. In making this request I am conscious of the fact that this is not something to do with money. It has nothing to do with legal costs. It should be an extremely easy thing to do.

The amendment was supported by Mary Robinson, former Senator and former President, who stated:

I am in favour of the removal of a concept which we have determined should not form part of our law relating to children any more; to substitute a formulation, either exactly as in Senator Fennell's proposed amendment, or one which represents the sense she has put forward, that it is a child not of a marriage who would be eligible for adoption under the first part of the proposed amendment of section 10 of the 1952 Act.

This was a good point. As the then Minister of State for health, I replied: "I propose to accept this amendment. In fact I intend to go further, to delete section 6 altogether." That debate showed the House's influence at the time. I did not need to refer the matter to the Cabinet. Sometimes, we feel that the Ministers of State who enter the Chamber have had no powers delegated to them. I had those powers and I used them.

People might not have realised that I used to attend the Chamber as a Minister of State where I debated with Mary Robinson and Nuala Fennell and accepted their reasonable point.