Guardianship of Infants and Child Care (Amendment) Bill 2026: Second Stage Seanad Éireann — 2026-06-24 ============================================================ Jim O'Callaghan (FF), Dublin Bay South I thank Senators for their considered contributions. I thank all those Senators who welcomed the Bill, which I think was universally the case. I will take on board the suggestions that were advanced. Senator Gallagher welcomed the Bill. He, like everyone else, echoed the legitimate and genuine recognition that everyone in this House and the other House wants to give to the French family for the work they have done, particularly David French. I wish to start my comments by echoing that. Senator Keogan said that, like all legislation, we should approach it with a great degree of caution. Any time we are legislating, we have to consider it very carefully. That is why I very much welcome the contributors in Seanad Éireann because we get a cautious response and one that seeks to interrogate the legislation. One of the points raised by Senator Keogan she felt merited attention was kinship care in circumstances where the legislation does not provide a mechanism for, say, grandparents or another family member to bring the application. This was related to a point another Senator discussed as well. In general, what happens when a tragic event like this occurs - and regrettably it is generally the case a mother has been killed by the father - is somebody needs to look after the children on the evening of the fatality. Usually grandparents, a sister of the deceased or a close relative will step in. If there is no available relative, Tusla will step in and bring an application under the Child Care Act 1991. As such, it is important to recognise there is an immediate response, as is necessary in the tragic circumstances where one guardian is murdered on a particular day and there are children there. Somebody needs to mind the children and there are arrangements put in place for that. Senator Keogan's concern is why there is not a provision in the legislation to allow for a family member, such as a grandparent, to bring an application under this procedure. As she will be aware from the legislation I am introducing, only Tusla can bring the application. I gave careful consideration to that. If we think about it, it is going to mean there could be conflicting interests and conflicting applications being made. You could have, for instance, parents of the deceased bringing an application while at the same time the parents of the convicted person are bringing an application, or siblings from different sides of the family. It could create a very tense situation because families do not, as we all know, think in a homogenous way and family members will have different perspectives on what should happen. Consequently, I took on board the recommendation from the justice committee and accordingly, Tusla will bring the application but family members - and it is a very broad definition of family - can apply to be notice parties to the application. Thus, in the situation Senator Keogan is concerned about, grandparents may apply to the court once Tusla brings the application for the purpose of seeking to ensure they are notice parties and their concerns can be heard. The Senator also raised the constitutionality of the Bill. Removing guardianship is a very significant step. Notwithstanding that, what is premising this Bill is concern for child's welfare. Protection of the child is the primary focus of this legislation. There are very many measures put in place where custody of children is taken off parents because they simply cannot care for the kids and that is something regarded as constitutional. It is also important to point out it is not interfering with or seeking to interfere with parenthood. The parents remain the same no matter what. This is about guardianship. Senator Keogan also spoke about Tusla and concern about how it carries out its functions. No statutory body has a more difficult job than Tusla. --- 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/2026-06-24/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:06+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-06-24