Seanad debates

Thursday, 22 October 2020

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business

 

10:30 am

Photo of Barry WardBarry Ward (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I want to raise the rigidity in the system that allows citizens to change their names. Specifically, I am given to understand that citizens under the age of 18 have no right whatsoever to change their names. I can see why this would not be a problem normally, but the circumstances of this rigidity specifically affect a number of women who are estranged from their husbands and the fathers of their children, and who now have children who have a different name from them. If the children have not taken any part of their mother's name and have their father's name, a mother who is estranged from that person and from whom the children might also be estranged must now in regular circumstances in engagement with the State, such as passport control or dealing with the Garda and social and family protection services, not only explain the nature of her relationship to her own children but also prove they are her children.

I suggest that the rigidity means these women cannot change this but we should put in place a system that allows somebody in these particular circumstances to register a double-barrelled surname that includes the name of the mother in the official name of the child and does away with this bureaucratic difficulty that many women have. Many women have raised it with me personally with regard to when they are dealing with the State or officialdom in the country. I would like to see us do something to facilitate it and to be much more flexible in how we approach the various types of families we now have in the country.

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