Seanad debates

Thursday, 26 March 2015

Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Committee Stage

 

10:30 am

Photo of Frances FitzgeraldFrances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

This amendment relates to contact details being provided on an ongoing basis. There is no clear method to enforce this and there is a risk that if we make it mandatory, a later failure of a donor to update his or her contact details could somehow affect the legal parentage of the child. In this day and age it is relatively easy to trace people, based on the level of information required. We know the name, date of birth, address at the time of donation and the nationality. I agree it is desirable that a donor should update his or her information, but I cannot see a justification for making that mandatory or see a way to enforce that. This is the difficulty. In terms of initial consents, ongoing updating of information would be helpful. Nevertheless, the child on becoming an adult has the opportunity to get significant information because the name and contact details are available from when the person is 18.

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