Mary Seery Kearney (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State. With respect, he is not the Minister who is responsible for this. My remarks are not directed at him, but that response was an absolute load of twaddle. We were of the view that this would happen by the end of the first quarter of next year. If it is now to be inextricably linked not just to the appointment of a CEO to the AHRRA but also a load of officials, which will not happen before the end of the first half of next year, we are then looking at somewhere in the autumn of next year, at the earliest, before any families can apply for their retrospective parental orders. In the meantime, those families have children who are in precarious positions with regard to having a parent with whom they have a legal relationship for the entirety of their lives.

Commitments were made on the floor of this House by the Minister that there would be no delays with regard to retrospective applications. What I am hearing is an absolute and utter disgrace. It has misled people. The Department of Justice is not the delay here and neither are the courts; I know that for a fact. Officials are passionate about the establishment of this, but my child will be ten next May. There are children who are aged 13, 14 or 15. At this stage, we will not have parental orders for them before they turn 18. The idea that the two are absolutely linked and that the AHRRA has to be fully established before there are retrospective orders is completely contrary to everything the Minister said on Committee Stage in the Dáil and in this House. We are left with an open-ended situation that is utterly deceptive in bringing parents to this stage. Parents have been terribly misled. The level of anxiety out there in the community that they will never get their parental orders, and this will be kicked to touch for a number of years, is just appalling. It has to end.

My party has commitments going into its manifesto. I expect that everybody in the Government has the same. It is not dependent on any one individual that this has to be a priority for the next government. The response is unacceptable.