Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am glad the legislation is progressing. I know that it has a further journey to go. I urge the Minister to continue to engage with Members of this House as the legislation continues its journey. I believe there are issues of clarity and I still have two concerns. They may seem to be contradictory but I do not believe they are because they relate to the different rights and different circumstances of children and the difficulty of balancing the rights of children.

I am perhaps a literalist. Perhaps the Minister can provide me with notes in respect of the case law. I tend to read law by its letter and the letter of the law in section 93 is explicit as it relates to proceedings before any court. I would like to see where the advice of clarity is and I would like an assurance on section 93. While the section has an in-built balancing mechanism that allows for and protects the rights of the child, it also looks to the proviso of the protection of children generally in the public interest.It has a balancing mechanism within it, which is why I think it is useful. However, I would like to see the case law. I am very reluctant as a legislator to let legislation go through purely with reference to case law and where it is inexact and does not cover my area of concern. That is a reasonable concern.

The other concern I still have relates to amendment No. 7, which is in this group. It outlined caveats regarding some of the protections in respect of a child who is accused or convicted, whereby I sought to protect the child who is accused or convicted from his or her image or name being used in any report. I slightly narrowed that from the language in amendment No. 1, which refers to anything that could result in the child being identified. That was in the context of my concern that the first part of the Minister's amendment could be so widely interpreted that in a case where a child was a perpetrator, one could have a situation where a child who was a victim or witness is effectively excluded from being named, rather than being able to find a balance. We need a mechanism where we are not fully applying this provision and are able to apply it in a way that relates and is appropriate to the child who is a victim and a witness and then give as much protection as possible in terms of the name and image, for example, of a child who is accused or convicted. While this legislation will be progress, given that nuance, I am concerned that the Minister's amendment is still too wide in one respect and possibly too narrow in another respect. Perhaps that could be examined further as the legislation progresses.