Seanad debates

Thursday, 26 March 2015

Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Committee Stage

 

10:30 am

Photo of Jim WalshJim Walsh (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I find myself in agreement with all of what Senators Power and Mullen have said. I am not sure of best practice on how one accesses the information, but I have come across anecdotally instances where persons did not learn they were adopted until they were well into the teenage years and they felt a little betrayed. When it comes to Santa Claus, we all experience a touch of that where we feel maybe we should have been told sooner. This is a much more serious situation and can impact on the person concerned and his or her relationship with the parents. It is a difficult one and I do not know the best practice on it.

I will raise with the Minister the letter we all received from the Institute of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. I probably would not be a champion of much of its contents. It contained a couple of points, one of which was to do with this issue. The institute raised the question of children at 18, who are adults or getting into adulthood, only becoming aware at that stage and the impact it might have on them. There needs to be teased out somewhere along the line some form of guidelines so that where parents engage in AHR, best practices are developed that ease the child into knowing about it over a period in a way that caters for his or her understanding at that time and it does not come as one big revelation at a certain stage later in life. Perhaps that is something the Minister should look at.

I heard what the Minister stated about the European Union and that should be done. There is a need for that. Specifically, are we really talking in this Bill about the small minority of cases which will be harvested in this country which may be reduced because the Minister is providing these regulations whereas there will be neither restriction on the foreign donations coming in nor information or identify available to those children? I ask the Minister to address that because I am concerned that there is a lacuna in all of this.

On the amendments, particularly my amendment No. 24, I understand the difficulty in enforcing any of this. Obviously, when the person is making the donation here it is easier for them to be captured to give the information that the Minister will prescribe initially. I accept that what I am doing makes it more difficult because it relates to perhaps ten or 20 years into the future where there would be an obligation on them to update the register with information that would be not only valuable, but perhaps crucial, to the survival of the baby or maybe, at that stage, adult who has been conceived from the donor gamete, eggs or whatever else.

I am inclined to press these amendments with the Minister. I respect the points she makes about enforceability but, because the Bill is so piecemeal, the least we should do is strengthen it in so far as we can. A person will require two pieces of information, one of which is his or her identity. The other, obviously, important, piece of information is his or her history of genetic health.

On identity, this is why I am strong about the foreign one and we need to ensure that it is copper-fastened for what we do here as well.As I have said previously, it is a shame that Dr. Joanna Rose was not asked to appear before the justice committee. In terms of her personal experience, which is a matter of public record, she had to take a case to the courts in Britain to learn the identity of her father. While there might have been a little doubt in her mind, she was pretty sure the right person had been identified. The person concerned works in the city of London and is, I understand, a prominent businessman or professional. When she approached him, she was turned away. He wanted nothing to do with her. She subsequently received a letter from his solicitor saying that if she ever approached him again, she would be sued.

The circumstance about which we are now speaking is not, in my opinion, the same as that of a child being put up for adoption. A person who gives up a child for adoption has valid reasons at the time for doing so. In this instance, that is not the case. In this case, we are speaking about people who make a conscious decision to participate in a process. I understand many of those who do so are students and that they do it to boost their income. They may not want to have any attachment to, connection with or responsibility for the child. I will speak later about limits, which are essential but missing from the Bill.

We have an opportunity today at least to improve this Bill, which the Minister agrees goes only a small way towards address of this issue. I hope that the Minister can take on board these amendments and, perhaps, some later amendments.

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