Same-sex civil partners and step parents should have parental responsibility given to them by the State, the Special Rapporteur on Child Protection has recommended.

In a report to the Oireachtas, published yesterday, the Special Rapporteur, Dr Geoffrey Shannon (pictured), recommended that the State implement recommendations made in 2010 by the Law Reform Commission (LRC) in respect of extending guardianship rights to step-parents and civil partners.

The report also recommends the extension of automatic guardianship rights to unmarried fathers and suggests giving “further consideration to the issue of guardianship rights of parents in the context of assisted human reproduction”.

It recommends that the State “consider the possibility of enabling parties to opt-out of automatic registration of parental responsibility, where both parties consent, either at the time of initiating the assisted reproduction process or in any event prior to the birth of the child”.

The Report, citing the LRC, recommends that civil partners and step-parents would gain guardianship rights “by way of an agreement with other parties already having parental responsibility for the child, or by way of application to the court”.

It said: “The (Law Reform) Commission was of the view that where parental responsibility was extended by agreement all parties should obtain legal advice prior to finalising the agreement.

“It also recommended that where a court was tasked with making an order extending parental responsibility it must have regard to, among other factors, the wishes and best interests of the child and the views of other parties with parental responsibility.”

Justice Minister Alan Shatter has already indicated that he intends to press ahead with an amendment to the Civil Partnership Act to include a clause relating to parental rights for same-sex couples.

In respect of granting automatic guardianship rights to unmarried fathers, the report acknowledged that there was a concern that this would “guarantee rights to genetic fathers who play no role in the child’s life following conception”.

“The existence of these automatic rights would arguably enable a genetic father to have an effective veto over decisions that the mother might wish to make with regard to the child in the future,” it said.

However, again citing the LRC, the report suggests that these automatic rights be accessed on an opt-on basis.

Under the suggested scheme, a father would be allowed to make an application to the relevant Registrar of Births who would record this application and inform the mother of the child that the application had been made.

Following this, the mother would have 28 days to object to the name of the man being entered on the birth certificate as the father of the child.

Where no objection is made, the father’s name would be entered on the birth certificate.

Where an objection is made thereafter by the mother, the Registrar of Births would refer the matter to the District Court whose only power would be to delete the entry if it was established by the mother than the man was not the father of the child, the report suggested. The report also recommends replacing the current terms “guardianship,” “custody” and “access” with the terms “parental responsibility,” “day-to-day care” and “contact.”

It says: “These terms are considered to more accurately describe the relationship between the child and those caring for him or her. It has been suggested that a more accurate description of guardianship is in fact “parental rights and responsibility.”