Ban on identifying murdered children to be resolved in ‘weeks’ – McEntee

A legal ban on the public identification of murdered children should be resolved within a matter of weeks, the Minister for Justice Helen McEntee has said.

The Minister said she was determined to change the situation and will soon bring a memo to Cabinet outlining how that will be done.

Last October the Court of Appeal ruled that provisions within the 2001 Children’s Act preventing the identification of a child when someone is charged with an offence against them do not exclude children who are deceased.

The ruling marked a significant departure from established media reporting practices in the State, effectively preventing their identification once someone had been charged in relation to their death.

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It has also caused upset to families of the deceased who are themselves prohibited from speaking about their children publicly if they identify them by doing so.

Last month, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said work by the Minister for Justice and the Attorney General was under way to change the law in the interests of transparency.

Resolution ‘within sight’

Pressed on why this appeared to be taking some time to carry out in an interview on RTÉ’s Prime Time on Tuesday, Ms McEntee said a resolution was within sight.

“I am absolutely determined to change this because no parent, no family should be in a situation where they cannot remember their children in the way that they want to,” she said.

A memo will be presented to Cabinet next week, and in two weeks’ time the Government will introduce a Bill to the Seanad. It will require Government amendments in order to address a number of related issues.

“I am going to say in a matter of weeks that we should be able to have this resolved,” the Minister said.