asked the Minister for Justice if any progress has been made in implementing the recommendation of the Devlin Report that responsibility for An Bord Uchtála be transferred from his Department to the Department of Health.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - An Bord Uchtála.
60.
No decision on this recommendation has been taken by the Government and I do not regard consideration of it as being in any way a matter of urgency especially as the recommendation relates in fact to a proposed new Department of Health and Welfare. Meanwhile, I should perhaps make it clear that, on a preliminary consideration of the recommendation, I am by no means satisfied that it is one that I would support.
Would the Minister agree that questions of welfare are appropriate to be dealt with by some Department other than the Department of Justice, which is concerned with basic legal rights, and modern trends are towards a greater consideration of child welfare as distinct from mere legal technicalities?
I think the Deputy has put his finger on one of the factors in this. The welfare of children is something quite different from the vesting in parents, or adoptive parents, of the legal rights of parenthood over children. We are dealing with quite different things and there may well be a case for having this kind of thing dealt with separately from an ordinary welfare department.