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

I reassure the Senator there is flexibility. While I have said that subsection (a) does not apply where the child is deceased or where there is only one living child involved, a court may still apply a flexible approach where there is only one child living and it needs to give consideration to the impact on that child if their sibling is deceased. That flexibility remains within the legislation. It does not mean that people automatically cannot name the sibling because of the deceased child. Subsection 2A essentially provides that where there are two or more living children, it is not possible to dispense with subsection 1 without taking into account all the circumstances. That does not mean it does not apply where there is only one living child. That flexibility is still there. I assure the Senator that we are not introducing legislation to allow for that situation. I fully appreciate where the Senator is coming from. If parents want to be able to name their child where it may not have an implication on the living child, I do not want to prevent them from doing that. I do not want that to happen. The legislation is clear that will not be the case.