Carlow Kilkenny TD calls for amendment to Children’s Act to allow identification of deceased children who were crime victims

A Carlow Kilkenny TD is calling for an amendment of the Children’s Act to allow the identification of deceased children who were victims of crime.

The Court of Appeal last week ruled that a child who is dead cannot be identified when someone is charged with taking their life. This ruling means the person charged with such a murder or manslaughter cannot be named if by doing so would also revealed details of the young person.

Fianna Fail TD Jennifer Murnane O’Connor and Deputy Jim O’Callaghan are proposing legislation to change this.

Speaking to KCLR news Deputy Murnane O’Connor said she’s speaking on behalf of Ballinkillen woman Kathleen Chada who can no longer speak the names of her deceased children in public due to this bill.

She says “I’m working with Kathleen Chada, Kathleen has been on I know a lot of radio programmes last week where she cannot now not mention her children’s names and that’s unacceptable, you know everyone needs to talk about their children in particular what happened to them”.

The Fianna Fail representative adds “Jim O’Callaghan and myself have been working on this amendment so we’re hoping that it will be in the Dáil next week, if not the week after and I’m fully committed to working on this on behalf of all parents & children who have gone through such loss”.