Barry Ward (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Ba mhaith liom labhairt inniú faoi parental alienation. This is a situation where parents are estranged and one parent acts decisively to alienate the other parent from their children, be it psychologically or physically preventing them from accessing their children. It is an awful thing. It is not just hard for the parent but it does terrible damage to the children, and we have spoken about the damage done to children. This is something that is done deliberately by an adult to his or her own children. It is pervasive and much more common than we think. Many people have contacted me recently about this issue.

I am grateful that the Minister for Justice, Deputy McEntee, has taken steps to start a process on this and there is a public consultation under way through the Department of Justice on parental alienation and what is involved in that, asking people to share their experiences and what they think should be done. The deadline for that public consultation is this coming Friday, 24 June. People can make a submission by emailing parentalalienation@justice.ie. I encourage anyone who has suffered as a consequence of parental alienation to share their experiences with the Department. This public consultation gives us a full and proper picture of what is actually happening. It is important that people keep the details of any personal experiences to themselves so the parties are not identifiable, but I know people will be aware of that.

I personally think this should be a crime. It damages the children in a way that we cannot even understand until many years later. In many respects, it is as bad as the other abuses and the other difficulties children face that have been discussed in the House today. I encourage anyone who has experience or ideas in regard to parental alienation to make a submission to the current public consultation by this coming Friday.