Guardianship of Infants and Child Care (Amendment) Bill 2026: Second Stage Seanad Éireann — 2026-06-24 ============================================================ Jim O'Callaghan (FF), Dublin Bay South I know Senator Keogan agrees with that; it is an extremely difficult job. It is the statutory agency responsible for the care of children. There is no other agency it would be appropriate to give this function to. It is also appropriate to place such a high level of discretion in Tusla. One of the arguments raised in the Dáil was Tusla must bring an application within six months if it is satisfied it is in the best interests of the child. That second hurdle will be easily overcome. Obviously there is nothing to stop family members from writing to Tusla or asking it to bring an application but it is better to have the application process controlled by one statutory agency as opposed to family members having the burden of bringing it forward. Ba mhaith liom mo bhuíochas a ghabháil leis an Seanadóir Kelleher freisin. Bhí mé ag éisteacht go cúramach lena óráid. He spoke about the importance of child protection being at the heart of this. I also listened to Senators McCormack and Tully. Senator McCormack referred to very many gaps in legislation. There are, but I am trying to address them. It is important also in these Houses that we listen to other Members and if they bring forward proposals I think are good I will try to adopt them or else they can issued by way of a Private Members' Bill. I think Senator McCormack also referred to the issue of the application process being brought by Tusla and I answered that a few moments ago. Senator Tully asked what happens in the time between a crime being committed and sentencing. I sort of answered that a few moments ago in response to Senator Keogan. Obviously measures have to be put in place immediately. You cannot just wait for a person to be convicted. What happens in that interim period is the day a mother is killed, somebody has to step in to the position of minding the children, especially if it is the case the father has been arrested and remanded in custody. The child care order issue between Tusla and the family can also be dealt with in the unusual circumstances of a guardian being remanded on bail if they are charged with murder. The Senator also spoke about hearing the voice of the child. Section 12F of the legislation provides a mechanism for the voice of the child to be heard. I am also bringing forward a policy proposal to ensure the voice of the child is properly heard in all forms of proceeding. Senator Tully asked about what happens in circumstances where somebody is convicted of manslaughter but it was self-defence. That was in an amendment put forward by Deputy Carthy in the Dáil. The better way to deal with that is how it is dealt with in the legislation at present, that is, Tusla decides to bring the application but it must bring it if it is for the benefit of the protection of the child. Let us take the example of a mother who in self-defence committed a criminal act. In such circumstances Tusla could decide not to bring the application. There are issues with the amendment put forward by Sinn Féin in the Dáil that would make it impossible to navigate in terms of how it is presented. If you are convicted of manslaughter this arises but generally if it is self-defence you get acquitted. Self-defence is a defence and people are acquitted, so it is not going to arise if somebody is acquitted but if somebody is convicted of manslaughter it will have to be considered. I thank Senator Cosgrove for her support. She asked me whether the Bill's provisions are constitutionally watertight and I believe they are. She asked me if they will not be subject to challenge but I cannot guarantee that. People are entitled to challenge legislation and when you think of the powers we are taking away from people here - the right to guardianship is a significant statutory and moral responsibility people have - I suspect it will be challenged. However, we should not shy away from introducing legislation just because people may challenge it in future. I believe it will withstand that challenge. I thank Senator O'Reilly for her comments. I agree with what she was saying about violent pornography. I spoke about that this morning at the Women's Aid report launch. It is having a very distorting impact on the development of young people's sexuality and we need to ensure people realise relationships should be healthy relationships. I hear what Senator Clonan said as well and echo what is contained in the Women's Aid report. It recognises the overwhelming majority of violence done to women is done by people they are in a relationship with and that while stranger violence can happen, violence is typically inflicted on women by those they are or were in a relationship with. I thank Senator O'Donovan for his contribution as well. He mentioned west Cork and I am conscious one of the big stains on the character of justice in the country is the fact no-one has ever been brought to justice for the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier. As the Minister for justice that is embarrassing to me, as I am aware it is to people in this House. I hope that heinous crime can be resolved. As a final point, I am not trying to shy away from this but I am not the Minister for children, even though the legislation I am bringing forward is to do with the Guardianship of Infants Act. I am informed in terms of the issues about legal representation. Where the guardian ad litem needs legal representation, this will be provided. However, it must be acknowledged legal representation is not always required by the guardian ad litem . I do not want to start speaking on areas of policy that are not my responsibility. The Minister, Deputy Foley, has spoken on this before and with the permission of the Seanad I will evade that question and let her deal with it. --- 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