Jim Walsh (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit go dtí an Teach inniu. Go n-éirí go mór leis sa toghchán romhainn. I welcome the Minister.

I would like to start by expressing again our sympathy for the Enright and Walsh families on what was a real tragedy, with the loss of a wife, a daughter and a granddaughter, and a very traumatic event for the family. We covered this debate to some extent during the passage through this House of the Civil Registration (Amendment) Bill 2014. I thank the Minister for the empathy and sympathy that he showed for those affected by the case in considering the amendments and, indeed, I know the family were grateful. While we did not get the amendments passed, we had a good debate, which raised the question: What is birth?

Interestingly, we have a commonly understood meaning for stillbirth which would not seem to cover circumstances in which a mother dies, the baby dies as a consequence and then the baby is removed from the woman's body by way of autopsy. I believe that was part of the dilemma that faced the coroner in this particular case, and his ruling is interesting. He relied upon the statutory interpretation but also took into account the provisions of the eighth amendment to the Constitution, to which he referred in his ruling. He also had correspondence with the Attorney General, who said that a death certificate could be issued under the stillbirth provisions. The coroner was not convinced of that, so he reconsidered the matter and considered the definition of stillborn child and the violation of the fundamental rights of the unborn child. He said that the majority of the definitions confirmed that birth means the separation of the unborn child from the body of the mother, and went on to say that the 2004 Act does not contain any restriction as to how a birth should occur. He ended up making the finding, as a matter of law, that the removal or separation of a non-living foetus from the mother in the course of an autopsy is a birth and that its death is therefore registerable. It was noteworthy that the Enright family thanked the coroner in court through their legal representatives for recognising the separate legal personality of the unborn child. The family, I believe, have asked him to reserve issuing the coroner's certificate pending consideration of the constitutional action that they have before the courts.Of course, none of us wanted them to go down that route, as the Minister acknowledged during the discussions we have had here. If the Minister of State is back in this Department, he may look again at the Civil Registration Act to see whether they might have what we could call a Mollie Enright amendment to the Act, which would recognise deaths of infants in such a case. Article 40.3.3° of the Constitution is interesting, particularly the Irish version, which states: "Admhaíonn an Stát ceart na mbeo gan breith chun a mbeatha" - in other words, the life that has not been born. To some extent, it is hard to rationalise that. I know that, under the law, this has happened previously, so there is probably a question mark in regard to it.

I look forward to the Minister of State's response. I think that he, like me, would feel that no family in such traumatic circumstances should have to fight so hard and also expose themselves to the exploitative legal costs we have in this country in order to pursue what they see as justice for their daughter and granddaughter. I would be interested to hear what the Minister of State has to say.