Jillian van Turnhout (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I absolutely accept the Minister’s bona fides on this issue and, as has been in evidence in the House tonight, we all share that objective. I acknowledge the work being done by the officials in the Department of Children and Youth Affairs and by the Attorney General.

I am cognisant that it could be challenged in law, as any law could be but the likelihood is that will be by somebody who is in violation of the law. The difficulty is that very often if somebody starts with disciplining a child by a tap or a slap when that is not effective it is escalated. We see too many cases of this. We need to send a very clear message that violence against children is unacceptable. I am also very conscious when people talk to me on this issue that this is not about judging parents. I do not in any way want my words tonight to be about judging parents. Sometimes I am asked, "Surely it is acceptable if a child is about to run across the road?" If a child is about to run across the road surely the parent grabs the child to protect him or her, and does not slap or hit the child. There is no reason to use violence against the child.

There are situations, I can see all too often, when children misbehave. One of my pet peeves at the moment is the carousel queueing systems in shops that have sweets all at the eye level of children. The adults are able to look around the shop while queueing but the children are being bombarded with sweets and naturally want to take these and the parent is trying to ensure the child behaves. In that situation it is important to support the parent and I have complained to the shopkeepers, saying I find it unacceptable that they put parents in this situation by having sweets at the children’s eye level. I am not trying to judge the parent because the commercial sector has created a very difficult situation for that parent. We should all always work to help the parents in that important, critical role.

I welcome what the Minister has said here tonight. I believe that children are rights holders, as the people of Ireland do and they need to be equal before the law. I am not precious about whether this is my amendment or a Government amendment. If there is better wording to ensure we can do it right, I want to try to see that we can bring this into law. I agree with what has been said about doing it on the eve of 2016. Now is the time we need to do it, it is well overdue. I hope we will stand here next week in a position to accept an amendment that Ireland will at last repeal the defence of reasonable chastisement. The very idea that we could wait to have it tested in the courts, and let it remain in our common law, horrifies me when I have read some of the definitions.

I thank the Minister for his words tonight and wish bon courageto him and his officials. I am here to help if there is anything I can do to ensure we will all be in the position that we wish to be next week. I will push this to a vote if the Government is not in a position to support it because I feel passionately about this. I have only a few months left here, whenever there is an election. This issue has been close to my heart for many years. I have seen too many cases of children where this was acceptable and violence has escalated within the family. We have to send a clear message, which my colleagues across the aisle in the Seanad tonight have done clearly, saying violence against children is unacceptable in all its forms.