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

Amendments Nos. 43, 44 and 46, are intended to ensure that a donor-conceived child can access information about a donor from the age of 16. This would reflect an evolving view of the ability of older minors to make important decisions in their own right. I can understand why the Senator has tabled this amendment because this is an evolving issue and there are different views about the position of mature minors. Different age limits have been prescribed across a range of legislation affecting young people's rights and actions at ages 16 to 18 years.In the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person legislation, the age is 16 in regard to medical consent, but that is totally clear. This is an issue that requires consideration at whole-of-Government level, rather than being addressed specifically in regard to children in this particular circumstance.

There are far wider issues to be considered, such as the capacity of mature minors to take important decisions about medical consent or their capacity to participate fully in the democratic process through voting at a specific age. There are different views on that and there is a broader issue here than to decide on the age of 16. The parents of children have the information and the ideal is that they would share the information from an early stage with the child.

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