Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator McDowell and other Senators for the manner in which they have worked with my Department and me to ensure the speedy passage of this legislation in order that we can implement change and address the concerns that have been raised. A number of issues have arisen since Senator McDowell published this Bill which I propose to address in these amendments.

Amendment No. 1 proposes to delete all of section 1, namely, lines 9 to 33 of the Bill, which propose to replace section 252 of the Children Act 2001 with a revised section. The new section, which is Part 1 in the Bill, is to insert a technical amendment to section 252(1), add three new subsections, namely, subsections (1A), (1B) and (1C) and insert a technical amendment to section 252(2) and add a new subsection (2A). Instead of replacing section 252, I will be amending it to ensure that parents will be free to refer in media reporting to the names of their deceased children who have been victims of crime. This will also remove the restrictions on the reporting of the identity of accused or convicted persons in such cases where there were restrictions because it might lead to the identification of the deceased child victim. However, this will not operate to undermine the provisions of section 252 if another child is in need of its protection. Nor will it undermine the provisions of section 93 of the Act, in particular, which protects the identity of a child who is the accused or convicted person. This is the point raised by Senator Higgins in her amendments and I have addressed it in this section. In addition, my amendment also addresses the restrictions that apply to the identification of a person who was a child at the time of the offence but an adult at the time of the proceedings.