Fiona O'Loughlin (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I commend Senator McDowell on bringing forward this legislation so soon after it was pointed out that it was needed. I acknowledge also the contribution of my colleague, Deputy O'Callaghan, in bringing forward legislation. It is very welcome that this legislation has been produced and that the Government is supporting it because it has been very clear that there is a need to address the Court of Appeal ruling that has prevented parents from speaking publicly about their deceased child in cases where the child was unlawfully killed. We cannot begin to imagine the death of a child but, in particular, the violent and tragic killing of a child. It is important that the memory of that child be revered in a way that is appropriate to the wishes of the parents. The situation often arises where the parent wants to address what happened to the child. Part of that is honouring the life of the child but another part is trying to ensure that similar tragedies do not happen again and that lessons can be learned from everybody.

This Bill permits the identification of those accused of and convicted of the homicide of children. We need to ensure that it is expedited. Having the Bill taken so early and the Government making a swift decision on it is welcome. We must change the law promptly because it is unfair to the memory of children who have been killed that we allow the current position to continue to obtain.

The background to the Bill is that it came about as a result of an unintended consequence of the Court of Appeal's ruling last year to the effect that the provision in the Children Act 2001 preventing the identification of a child where someone is charged with an offence against him or her does not exclude deceased children. This ruling meant that a child killed by a person cannot be identified once that person is charged. In addition, the person accused of killing a child cannot be identified if doing so would also lead to that child being identified. That is wrong for many different reasons. It is enormously unfair on the families of deceased children that they have to go through this process whereby the memory of their children is being removed from history. The mother of an 11-year-old boy who had been murdered was compelled recently to disguise her identity on television as though she was some type of criminal who could not be identified on the news.By revealing her identity, the identity of her dead child would also have been revealed. It is manifestly unfair to the families of deceased children that the law operates as it does.

This has been a major source of confusion for the public. People are informed of the name of a child if that child has been killed, which is absolutely correct, because it is such a major event in society when a child is killed. Individuals are informed, the public is informed and the child is identified. However, once proceedings commence, the media cannot name the child, leading to absurd cases where a child would have been named in the media for a period of days but once an individual is charged in respect of the child's death, the child can no longer be named. That is even just one reason this legislation must be changed.

I know the Government has a number of amendments to the Bill to ensure it delivers its vision and shared aim. It is important these amendments do not give rise to any unintended consequences that might affect the protection afforded by the Act to child witnesses or child victims in the criminal justice process. Section 252 of the Children Act 2001 currently provides that in any proceedings involving a crime committed against a child, the child cannot be identified after the proceedings have commenced.

This legislation makes sense if the child is being subjected to sexual abuse or has been assaulted and it would clearly exacerbate the trauma for the child if his or her victimhood would become a media story. It would aggravate the trauma of the attack already inflicted upon the child. However, it was never intended that the provision would apply in respect of a child who had been killed. It has not applied to that extent because before 2019 there was no such understanding of the application of that provision. It was never the case that children who had been killed were anonymised once a case came to trial.

I commend Senator McDowell on all his work to bring this forward and the Government on taking this Bill and bringing forward the necessary amendments to ensure we can achieve these necessary aims.