Published: Wednesday, 24th February, 2010 5:30pm

Children's rights referendum sought in O'Rourke's committee report

An Oireachtas committee chaired by Athlone TD Mary O'Rourke has published the wording of its proposed Constitutional change on the rights of children.

Last week, after two years, 62 meetings and two interim reports, the committee unveiled its final report on the proposed Constitutional change which affects areas such as adoption and the power of the State to intervene in the family.

Speaking to the Westmeath Independent this week, Deputy O'Rourke stated that it was a "very satisfying" moment for her personally to see the work of the committee reach its conclusion.

"We have come up with our proposal, we have done what we were tasked to do, so it's now up to the people to decide whether or not they wish to implement it," said Deputy O'Rourke.

No date has yet been set for the referendum on the proposed Constitutional change.

The committee recommended that the Constitution's existing Article 42, entitled 'Education', should be replaced with a new Article 42, entitled 'Children'.

The new article would recognise the rights of children as individuals. It would abolish the existing distinction in the Constitution and law between marital and non-marital children with regard to the kind of protection they are entitled to, and their availability for adoption.

As a result, it would mean married parents could consent to having their children placed for adoption.

The committee's report said it wished for parents to be assured that their rightful authority in relation to their children would not be undermined in any way. As a result, it recommended leaving untouched Article 41, which recognises the family as the natural, primary and fundamental unit in society.

Referring to this, Deputy O'Rourke said: "We've managed to do what seemed impossible, which was to keep Article 41 on the family and balance that with the rights of the child as an individual. Therefore children would be treated as individuals in their own right as well as in the bosom of the family."

She pointed out that the committee had come up with wording for the proposed Constitutional change which was unanimously supported by Fianna Fail, Fine Gael, The Green Party, Labour and Sinn Fein.

"There were a lot of diverse views and opinions from the members of the committee and it was some mammoth task to come up with a report that everyone agreed on. As (Irish Times columnist) Miriam Lord wrote, that was worthy of a Nobel prize in itself!"

Taoiseach Brian Cowen stated that the Attorney General's advice will be sought on the proposed Constitutional change.

"The Attorney General could amend our wording but I hope that doesn't happen," said Deputy O'Rourke. "Then it will be up to the cabinet to decide on a date if and when it wants to put (the amendment) to the people."

She added that she was "very honoured" to have chaired the committee and said that "most of the groups which deal with children" had welcomed its findings.