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

It is striking how many people have raised this issue in the debate in the Dáil and here, although it has never been done before and has not been the subject of any public debate. I have begun to examine it and staff in the Department have been considering the range of issues that would be involved. It is a big job to establish this. It will take work because there are issues involving security, data protection, data management and financial implications. We have to invent how this will be done. I decided because of the interest in it, and following the debate in the Dáil, to establish a pilot project as soon as possible to examine the issue and take it forward. We will invite parents who have made statutory declarations to deposit copies of the declaration with an administratively operated repository as an additional security mechanism. I will report on the outcome of that and we can examine how best to take it forward.

I remind Senators that section 6F of the Guardianship of Infants Act 1964 as inserted by section 49 of the Bill in cases of dispute between the parents as to the duration of cohabitation provides a remedy allowing either of them to apply to a court for a declaration that the father is or is not a guardian. I will take the spirit of what is intended behind Senator van Turnhout’s and Senator Ó Clochartaigh’s amendments and the one Senator Power tabled on Committee Stage and using the core principle behind them will begin to work on that.