Jillian van Turnhout (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 1:

In page 5, between lines 26 and 27, to insert the following:“ “emotional abuse” means behaviour (including an omission to behave in a particular manner) that significantly and seriously deprives a child of his or her developmental need for affection, approval, consistency and security and, without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing, includes—

(i) the imposition of negative attributes on a child, expressed by persistent criticism, sarcasm, hostility or blaming,

(ii) conditional parenting in which the level of care shown to a child is made contingent on his or her behaviours or actions,

(iii) emotional unavailability of the child’s parent or carer,

(iv) unresponsiveness of the parent or carer or inconsistent or inappropriate expectations of the child,

(v) premature imposition of responsibility on the child,

(vi) unrealistic or inappropriate expectations of the child’s capacity to understand something or to behave and control himself or herself in a certain way,

(vii) under or over-protection of the child,

(viii) failure to show interest in, or provide age-appropriate opportunities for, the child’s cognitive and emotional development,

(ix) use of unreasonable or over-harsh disciplinary measures,

(x) exposure to domestic violence, and

(xi) exposure to inappropriate or abusive material through new technology, provided that such behaviour or omission to behave in a particular manner results in or is likely to result in significant and serious injury to the emotional, social or psychological welfare of the child.”.

I wish to acknowledge the help that I have had from Dr. Fergus Ryan from the department of law, NUI Maynooth, in tabling these amendments. I have grouped the amendments on emotional abuse and neglect and I wish to start with the words of the American novelist Carson McCullers who said:

The hearts of small children are delicate organs. A cruel beginning in this world can twist them into curious shapes.

It is extremely important that we identify the name "emotional abuse" as a stand-alone form of abuse which, when sustained, has a devastating effect on children's’ lives and on through into adulthood. Emotional abuse is often the first abuse to occur and then escalates into other forms of abuse. We talk about the importance of early intervention and we should not underestimate the message we send by excluding emotional abuse from this Bill.

What message are we giving? Emotional abuse is about control and power. When we look at barring and protection orders containing statements such as "You cannot use abusive language", it makes one think that if we can define this in law for adults why is it different for a child? I have one case I was dealing with where a parent tells the child every day that they were born angry and then wonders why the child, at the age of 12, presents with an anger problem.

In this Bill "harm" includes neglect. Amendments Nos. 1 and 2 read together alter the definition of neglect to include emotional abuse, though only where the emotional abuse significantly and seriously injures the emotional, social or psychological welfare of the child. The definition of emotional abuse is largely drawn from its definition in the Children First guidance, subject to the caveat that behaviour or omission to behave will not be treated as emotional abuse for the purpose of this Act unless it has a significant and serious impact on the child. This is a relatively high threshold which is designed to ensure that minor infractions or subjective differences in relation to best practise in parenting do not become subject of investigation.

The amendment is clearly framed so that only behaviour or omissions to behave that have a significant and serious effect on the emotional, social or psychological welfare of the child are deemed to constitute emotional abuse. The examples given in subsections (i) through (xi) of amendment No. 1, are not exhaustive, they are without prejudice to the generality of the substantive definition and are drawn directly from Children First. It is important to note that a single or isolated incident of any of these examples may not be enough in itself to constitute emotional abuse in the sense in which it is defined in the amendment. These examples are nonetheless useful in helping to identify emotional abuse though they are subject to the caveat that the effects of the behaviour or omission to behave must be serious.

I bring these amendments to the Minister because I have dealt with cases where children have solely been emotionally abused and it has ended up in court and it has been dealt with by the courts. I feel that by excluding emotional abuse from this Bill we are sending a wrong message. In some way we are saying that it does not have the same devastating impact that other forms of abuse can have. That is why I have tabled these amendments.