Child Protection
Seanad Éireann — 2026-02-19
============================================================

Aubrey McCarthy (IND), University of Dublin

I thank the Minister of State. She stated there is family engagement and it is a matter of discretion, etc. My fear is that the family in this situation was engaged with but the co-parent was not. It seems the greatest concern of the family, rightly, was their family member. However, it seems the children were missed. The co-parent, who has the responsibility for and interest in the children, was not informed. That is a big gap. Nobody engaged with him. We have to question, then, who is there for the children in this regard.
The Minister of State mentioned discretion. Andrew McGinley is sitting in the Public Gallery, and they were his children too. Why does one parent, who is being treated for mental health issues, have the right to make all the decisions while the other co-parent is not involved? The Finnish model is one area to look at in this regard.
I welcome the Minister of State's willingness to bring this issue to the Minister of State, Deputy Butler. I urge that this be done fairly swiftly. The greatest tribute we can offer Conor, Darragh and Carla is not sympathy alone but reform in this area, so that no other parent will have to sit in the Public Gallery, having lost his or her children to tragic circumstances.

---

Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-02-19/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:39+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-19