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 provision must be seen against the other provisions in the Bill where there is a clear and strong presumption in favour of release. As I stated, I was advised by the Attorney General that I needed to include a provision here that would allow for exceptional circumstances. I included the well-being of the child, but I took that out because we had a discussion about that on Committee Stage in the Dáil, where we thought it was too broad a concept. It is exceptional, and, therefore, hard to begin to describe to some degree. It is where the safety of the child or the donor would be absolutely at risk if the information were in the public arena. It is a question of a threat to life because of the divulging of the information. As Senator Healy Eames states, it is difficult to imagine it, but one can assume that there might occasionally be such a situation, and the appeal is possible then. Even at that point, if the Minister, or the authority that will be in place subsequently, made the decision an appeal would be possible to the court. The court would then begin to examine it, looking at it from the point of view of the evidence available. The Minister or the subsequent authority would have to go to court and defend the position. The court would hear the defence, look at the evidence and decide whether, given the balance contained in the Bill of a clear and strong presumption in favour of release, it met the criteria of a fair decision.

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