asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs if he will introduce legislation whereby a deserted wife may have her children included on her passport.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Passport Legislation.
23.
Practice and procedure in regard to passport facilities are administrative matters derived from the general power to issue passports vested in the Minister for Foreign Affairs by the Ministers and Secretaries Act, 1924, and specific legislation to govern such administrative practice is not required. Existing practice allows for the grant of adequate passport facilities for minors where it is satisfactorily established that either the father or the mother has completely severed connection with the home and has in practice abandoned his or her role as parent. For example, the fact that a deserted wife is in receipt of a social welfare deserted wife's allowance would normally be accepted as prima facie evidence of this.
I understand from the Minister's reply that we are working under an Act of 1924. Surely we have come a long way since then and women's role in society has changed considerably. I should like to ask the Minister if a mother of her own right. without her husband's sanction, would not in future be allowed to have her children included on her passport.
I fear the Deputy has confused himself. The Act which I quoted in the reply is the Act which gives the authority for issuing passports; it is not the Act which governs the relationship of parent and child. I was simply saying that legislation is not required to govern the issue of passports. That is a power which, under the 1924 Act, was conferred on the Minister, who may make administrative decisions in execution of that particular function.
The Act that governs the relationship of the parent and children is an Act passed by Fianna Fáil in 1964. It provides that the guardianship of children under the age of 21 years is a right and obligation that is enjoyed jointly by the father and the mother. I appreciate the Deputy's concern about cases where, for instance, the parent who has neglected to care for the child should try to be awkward and withhold consent in the case of an application by the dutiful parent for a passport for the child or for the inclusion of the child on the other parent's passport. The Department take a pragmatic approach in these cases and if evidence is furnished to the Department indicating clearly the genuine nature of the application and the fact that any objection by a non-consenting parent is an unwarranted mischievous act on his part, the Department will be agreeable if the law so permits to arrange for the addition of the children to the applicant parent's passport. Each case is considered on its merits and if the Deputy has any special case in mind I am sure my colleague, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, will deal sympathetically with it on the basis of the facts.
I am pleased to hear some of the remarks of the Minister. I remember it being said to me that when one gets a long reply to a supplementary question one is told nothing. I should like to ask the Minister if he-has read the document issued recently by the society called AIM? Now young people can vote at 18 years, but if a husband deserts his family his wife may not be allowed to take the children abroad on holiday unless this ancient, Victorian type of legislation still on the Statute Book is amended.
Assuming the Deputy and myself have the same case in mind, I understand the necessary consent has been given and the children have travelled on the mother's passport.